How tech innovation in farming will feed over nine billion of us
By Ian Meikle, Head of Agriculture and Food at Innovate UK
Agricultural science and technology is one of the world’s fastest-growing and exciting markets. Ever rising populations, rapid development of emerging economies, and shortages of land, water and energy are driving the need for innovation on a massive scale.
As we grab a sandwich and a bag of crisps on the run, it’s easy to overlook the vital role that food, feed and drink production plays in our lives. Food and water are essential for life – it’s the primary human need – and providing a sustainable food supply chain is essential for society. In poorer nations where food supply chains are fractured or broken, this can be a matter of life or death.
In the UK, the population is expected to grow by 10–15% by 2030. On top of this there is competing demand for land – from a sprawling built environment as well as competition from energy-based fuel crops, such as biomass or transport fuels. And, as we’ve all seen on the news, the changing climate can wreak havoc on crops and livestock.
In a global context, the world population is expected to hit 9 billion by 2050; around a quarter more people on the planet. Diets are changing, too, towards a greater intake of meat and dairy foods, and developing nations are expecting similar levels of choice and nutrition to developed countries.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that, at current consumption levels, 60% more food will need to be produced globally by 2050. Simply put, we need to find new ways of providing food to our societies, and the need is pressing.
Innovation to the rescue
Science, technology and innovation have the potential to help solve some of these challenges. However, there are different opinions regarding the use of science and technology to improve productivity and efficiency within our food supply chains, with ‘organic’ versus ‘GM’ approaches polarising the debate.
The truth is that there are many other innovations that can support what the Royal Society describes as sustainable intensification – in which yields are increased without adverse environmental impacts and without the cultivation of more land.
Some of these technologies include new approaches to plant and animal breeding, better ways of combating pests and diseases, better meteorological prediction, and the ability to analyse huge amounts of data to gain greater insights into crop and livestock productivity.
Technology transfer from other sectors is also important. For instance, advances in satellite imagery mean it’s possible to tell which part of a field needs nutrients, and which areas need water. This is a good example of sustainable intensification – targeting the application of nutrients and water improves productivity and yields while reducing inputs and environmental impact. And, of course, reducing inputs means reducing costs, which is good for the farmer’s bottom line.
Agri-tech is an important focus for the Technology Strategy Board. As the UK’s innovation agency, our role is to stimulate innovation, working with business and other partners, in order to accelerate economic growth.
Over the past five years Technology Strategy Board, Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have provided a combined innovation funding pot of £90m through the Sustainable Agriculture and Food innovation platform.
Cream of the crop
A great example of this kind of innovative technology comes from Silent Herdsman Ltd, who have developed a monitoring system for cows and heifers based on a revolutionary neck mounted collar, helped by the Technology Strategy Board’s Knowledge Transfer Network.
Efficient milk production on a modern dairy farm relies on the cows calving at regular intervals. Most are mated using artificial insemination, so accurately detecting when a cow is in oestrus is a critical element of dairy herd management. Globally, it’s estimated that missed oestrus detection results in losses of around $2bn a year in lost milk production alone.
A cow’s activity level increases during oestrus, and traditional methods of detection rely heavily on manual observations, which has a high labour cost. The Silent Herdsman collar contains sensors that continually monitor a cow’s activity and automatically detect changes in normal behaviour, indicating patterns related to parturition and oestrus.
This can provide substantial cost savings of around £15k per year in a 100 cow herd through reduced labour requirement and need for repeated inseminations, as well as increased milk production over a cow’s lifetime.
Spud we like
The Knowledge Transfer Network has also been aiding innovation in the field of everyone’s favourite fried vegetable, the potato.
It typically takes around 13 years to develop a new strain of spud, with UK potato yields failing to improve significantly since 1990. Couple this with the fact that potato skins’ blemishes and bruising costs the potato industry around £45m every year, and you can why a consortium of companies – including McCain Foods and Cygnet Plant Breeders – has come together to unravel the mysteries of the potato’s genome.
The project is developing new potato varieties with improved traits such as better disease resistance, and more efficient water and nitrogen use. This will provide environmental benefits to UK agriculture and could ultimately lead to a 10% yield increase and a reduction in wastage resulting from crop defects. These combined effects could result in 10% less area required for potato production in the UK.
Funding the future
Nearly four million people in the UK are employed in the food, feed and drink industry. These supply chains connect researchers, agro-chemical providers, machinery manufacturers, farmers, producers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, providing the food and drink that sustains us. The sector contributes around £96bn to the UK economy and, with exports of £18bn per year, it is one of the top exporters of food, feed and drink in the world.
The UK is also strong in agricultural and food research. Advances in the biosciences are driving change, helping improve yields of crops, livestock and fish species, and improving the nutritional quality of crops through biofortification.
Breakthroughs in science can also help improve health and well-being through our diet. We can develop models to understand the link between nutrition and a person’s health, as well as investigating how to improve the density of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids and amino acids in our food.
“The government is investing £70m in the Catalyst over the next five years to make the UK a world leader in agricultural innovation”
The government’s Agri-tech strategy was published last year. It is one of the UK’s core industrial strategies, reflecting the importance of this area.
As part of this strategy, we have set up the Agri-tech Catalyst with the vision to make the UK a world leader in agricultural technology, innovation and sustainability. The government is investing £70m in the Catalyst over the next five years.
This funding will enable the Agri-tech Catalyst to award grants for early-stage pre-industrial research feasibility studies, industrial research, and late-stage pre-experimental feasibility studies and experimental development. We are also involved in proposals to set up a number of new Agri-tech Informatics Centres.
This is all happening because we can’t wait until 2030 to tackle the problem of rising food demand; the time to do this is now, before the task becomes an impossibility. The goal is to support innovation that can help to provide more safe, healthy, and nutritious food, so we can all continue to blissfully grab our lunches on the run – and at the same time make the most of the business opportunities that these challenges offer, for the benefit of UK plc.
Ian Meikle is Head of Agriculture and Food at Innovate UK. Follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn and _connect.
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