Martin was part of a small delegation which met DEFRA Minister George Eustice during his visit to the Cambridgeshire County Show on Sunday 1st June. During an hour long meeting the importance of agricultural technology and a progressive science led approach to the development of he industry was discussed.
L to R: Grahame Nix OBE, CEO of GCGP, Dr. Belinda Clarke, Director of Agri-Tech East, Martin Lutman, Project manager of the Eastern Agri-tech Initiative, Marie Francis OBE, Chair of FFRNE, Farming Minister George Eustice, Martin Collison, Member of FFRNE
The East of England has the largest commercial agri-food sector of any region. This sector is progressive and has continued to grow strongly during the downturn.
With larger businesses and strong collaboration between smaller ones, the region’s agriculture and food sector is market focused and investing in technology.
We urged more investment in technology and innovation through routes including the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) and other government sources. The Minister supported the concept of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) and its link to the RDPE and Horizon 2020 programme which is seen as very important locally to help facilitate smaller projects which can then be developed with EU or commercial finance into global products and services.
Eastern Agri-tech cluster
The strength of the agri-tech sector in the East of England derives from our cluster of World class research centres, Innovative Production Capabilities and the major UK and global companies in the area. Our ambition is to build on these strengths to create one of our main economic growth stories of the coming decades. The Minister learned of our vision for this local strength to drive forward UK and export led sales growth. We discussed with the Minister the need to build on the success of existing initiatives such as the Agri-Tech East Cluster and the linked Regional Growth Fund project which is supporting innovative local companies and asked for his support for the continuation of this latter programme in the local Growth Plans submitted by the Greater Cambridgeshire, Greater Peterborough LEP.
The discussions concluded by exploring other issues which support the rural economy and agri-technology sectors including the importance of skills and broadband.