Director to chair the Agricultural Science and Technology group

An industry led group to share, disseminate and encourage adoption of advances in agricultural science and technology has been established.

The group will explore the opportunities surrounding agricultural technologies as a means of helping farmers maximise on farm efficiency and the subsequent economic and environmental benefits that this can bring.

The establishment is the fulfilment of a commitment made within the agriculture chapter of the recent Climate Change Plan, which was laid before Parliament earlier this year.

Announcing the groups establishment, Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said:

“I want to ensure a sustainable and efficient rural economy, which is why I am announcing the establishment of an industry led group, bringing together key experts, to look at the encouraging the adoption of advances in agricultural science and technology.

“Founded with a strong scientific and technological presence, the group will look to highlight current and future opportunities, and identify barriers and possible solutions to the uptake of technologies within Scottish agriculture.

“By exploring, identifying and maximising the avenues for the promotion of the benefits of a wider uptake of science and technology, it is my hope that we can increase on farm efficiency, enabling farmers to benefit from the economic and environmental benefits that this can bring.

“With our new Climate Change Bill set to increase our climate targets to the most ambitious of any country, for every year from 2020 all the way through to 2050,  everyone needs to play their part and I look forward to working with the group towards creating a more sustainable rural economy.”

Source: Scottish Government

Robert Ramsay, Sales Director of SoilEssentials and chair of the new group said:

“To date, I have focused on delivering improvements in agricultural technologies to address inefficiency in the systems, and in trying to manage my own farm in a less carbon intensive manner in order to address these very issues. This will be an opportunity to help address such problems across a country rather than farm by farm. This is why I was delighted to accept chair of this group.”

Robert adds “My career has involved trying to improve my farm’s efficiency through innovation. I then have had the pleasure of working with the most innovative farmers in Scotland through SoilEssentials and helped them dramatically improve their efficiency. It is a real reflection of how good SoilEssentials have been in delivering these efficiency gains, that the powers that be, have asked me to help on a national scale. It will be our aim to bring cutting edge innovation to actual practical use across Scotland.”