Meet the pioneers that are transforming our food production
Tom Jenkins, Deputy Director of the Transforming Food Production programme, puts a spotlight on projects that are using innovative approaches to make our food system more efficient, resilient and sustainable.
The £90m Transforming Food Production (TFP) programme has funded over 100 projects to date. Within this exciting portfolio we are backing some fantastic innovative approaches that enable food to be produced more efficiently and sustainably, supporting the programme’s ambition to realise net zero emissions by 2040.
There are examples of world-leading developments in areas such as precision agriculture that include automation and robotics, artificial intelligence, diagnostics and sensor technology. These innovations lay the foundation for a transition towards more predictive farming approaches, which will be increasingly important given the recent increase in the cost of commodities such as fuels and fertilisers. The application of these new technologies on farms will help to facilitate a move away from prophylactic use of agricultural inputs like fertilisers and crop protection chemicals, towards their precision use where and when needed, helping to maximise productivity whilst reducing negative impacts on our environment from overuse.
We are also supporting projects in alternative proteins and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), which represent emerging industry sectors that allow food to be produced in non-traditional locations, such as brown field sites or urban environments — to complement more traditional farming systems. Our recent ‘Investor Partnership’ competition, which aligns private equity investment with TFP grant funding, has supported SMEs developing these types of CEA vertical farming systems, alongside investments focusing on alternative protein production such as lab-based meat.
The aligned investment, secured from the private Venture Capital sector, is critical to realise the growth and scale ambitions of start-up firms. The boost in capital investment allows these companies to take the next steps beyond R&D, and provides the resource necessary to develop manufacturing and production facilities, or to employ high-calibre executive teams that are often critical in helping these businesses transition to revenue generation.
We are also looking at opportunities to extend our footprint beyond the shores of the UK through international programmes with Canada and China. These programmes are supporting co-innovation projects that help develop new partnerships for UK companies to test and trial new approaches and technologies in rapidly expanding precision agriculture markets in North America and Asia across crop, livestock and aquaculture production systems.
Supporting impact and uptake
We are now entering the last two-year phase of the TFP programme, with the majority of our funding having been committed and projects completing by the end of March 2024. Within this context, we are starting to focus on value-add activities that can be taken forward across our portfolio to drive impact from the investments made in UK agri-tech. This will be important to promote uptake of innovations that are starting to emerge from projects across the portfolio.
Some examples of activities we have been supporting in this area include ‘Collaboration Nation’ workshops. These bring together project cohorts from the portfolio, often focusing on a common theme or challenge being faced by the sector, creating opportunities to share learnings for mutual benefit across a wider sub-sector or supply chain. We have also taken forward a number of workshops to create future visions and roadmaps for emerging industry sectors, most recently to look at the UK alternative protein sector and the opportunities and challenges for creating a competitive industry towards 2030.
We are also showcasing the projects within our portfolio to promote the fantastic work being developed across the UK’s science-base and industry through our ‘Meet The Pioneers’ video series. The series focuses on key people from our portfolio and gives an insight into the journey the projects have embarked upon after receiving TFP grant funding — as well as the progress made to date.
The TFP pioneers
A huge part of the success of TFP are the pioneering individuals, projects, collaborations, networks and stakeholders who come together to meet the aims and objectives of our challenge programme. We’ve decided to bring together some of the people and projects who embody the ideology of TFP and who are making real strides to move innovation within the industry forwards.
One key area of focus for TFP has been the environmental impact of the sector and how to improve use of agricultural inputs such as nitrogen. Among our pioneers, Liangxiu Han of Manchester Metropolitan University is leading the way with the precision application of nitrogen in crop soil, while CCM Technologies are focussing on the use of waste resources for fertilisers.
Digital technology is also a key element of the future food sector. Our series therefore shines a light on the work of SAGA Robotics’ Robot Highways project, which tackles challenges for fruit farmers in terms of harvesting, chemical use and labour shortages, as well as Precision Decisions’ aim to connect a full supply chain from farm to fork through data sources to better inform all stakeholders. Another focus are InFarm who are vertical farm specialists that apply cloud-connected technology in their controlled environment agriculture systems, which can produce food 365 days a year with up to 90% less water use — aiming to increase production within cities
For animal farmers we have focused on some real innovators too. WELLCALF’s ear tag combines precision technology and AI to give accurate animal welfare information to farmers, while Davlec’s project for dairy farmers works to assess progesterone levels that can greatly improve decision making to reduce calving interval times. In another connected space, Devenish are using oil from microalgae in poultry feed to increase the valuable DHA fatty acid content within the meat — something 80% of humans are deficient in.
It’s clear then that there’s a great deal of potential and some amazing work going on to make the UK food sector ready for its next challenges.
The future for TFP
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and the more recent conflict in Europe, many projects have shown great resilience and pragmatic thinking over the last three years to manage the challenges that have affected the delivery of their innovations, as a result of disruption to global supply chains and the availability and costs of many items.
We will continue to showcase the innovations emerging from the TFP portfolio and plan to extend the ‘Meet The Pioneers’ series with new videos over the later part of this year. There will also be future funding opportunities available through the Farming Innovation Programme that we are delivering in partnership with Defra — both for earlier stage innovations such as the Research Starter and Feasibility Studies competitions, but also for later stage applications through the Small and Large R&D Partnership competitions and Farming Futures R&D competitions.
Opportunities to take forward workshops across TFP projects are also being explored. These will provide a forum for innovators to discuss common challenges being faced, potentially through a thematic or sub-sector focus, and foster an environment for peer-to-peer learning networks to be formed and new solutions and collaboration efforts to be developed.
We are also looking at opportunities to support TFP projects with outreach and engagement with end-users and growers, through involvement in sector events and trade shows both in the UK and through our international programmes.
If you’d like to find out more about the TFP challenge, or how you can get involved, visit our website.
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The Transforming Food Production programme is supported by the UKRI Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) and delivered by Innovate UK. ISCF addresses the big societal challenges being faced by UK businesses today, backed by £2.6 billion of public money, with £3 billion in matched funding from the private sector. You can read more about what we do here.
