By Jez Fredenburgh Knowledge Exchange Fellow for AFN Network+ If you missed our annual network gathering last month, you can now watch the key presentations on YouTube, by clicking the names of our three distinguished and very thought-provoking speakers below. Judith Batchelar OBE is deputy chair of the Environment Agency and former brand director for Sainsbury’s. Navaratnam Partheeban OBE is a farm vet and founder of the British Veterinary Ethnicity & Diversity Society. Sue Pritchard is a farmer and chief executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Key points from Judith's presentation on supermarkets and food system change and challenges: “The world doesn’t produce what the world needs to be eating! We need to produce three times more fruit & veg globally than we are currently, if everyone is to eat a healthy, planet-friendly diet"
Judith's slide on what the world produces, and what the world needs to eat I looked up Judith's point about the UK's fruit and veg deficit, and it really is rather large: Out of 'food, feed and drink', fresh fruit and veg is the highest value category for imports, totalling £6.6 billion (2022). Exports of fresh fruit and veg, in comparison, totalled only £149m. That's a trade deficit of £6.45 billion! See full government stats here.
Designing a new model of insurance for farmers experimenting with climate friendly practices23/4/2024
By Zainab Oyetunde-Usman, Rothamsted Research This project, led by Zainab, was one of 16 scoping studies to receive funding from the AFN Network+ in 2023 In the UK, agriculture has a large impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for 68% of nitrous oxide and 47% of methane emissions – with a significant impact on the ecosystem. Farms are diverse and complex and mitigating farm emissions and achieving the UK’s 2050 net zero target will require experimentation to establish which combination of net-zero practices work best on each farm. Also, farms are open systems, meaning that agricultural production occurs in a wide range of lands and climate risks such as flood, biodiversity carbon loss etc can be linked and do not occur in isolation. Tackling climate risks and reducing farm emissions will therefore require collaboration at a landscape scale. How do we reduce risk for farmers who want to experiment with various practices and see which can effectively tackle climate risk? This was the key research question raised by our team at the AFN Network+ Crucible workshop in June 2023, made up of researchers at Glasgow University (Rachel Opitz), Rothamsted Research (Zainab Oyetunde-Usman) and the SRUC (Joana Ferreira). Our idea of farmers’ risk-pooling through collective insurance to jointly tackle climate risk is akin to people taking building insurance for blocks of flats to cover major risks such as fire, flood, theft etc. Taking insurance individually is expensive and collective farm insurance products can provide a cheaper risk-pooling option accessible to all farmers. Also, innovation at a large scale has more impact than on a single farm. A new model of collective insurance for farmers Collective insurance products are uncommon and to support farmers in experimenting and taking risks as a group, our project explores the design of a new model of collective insurance for farmers trying new climate-smart practices as a cohort, across a catchment. We will consult with farmers, insurance companies and other key stakeholders to understand varying needs. For example, we will carry out market research on what attributes of collective farm insurance are preferable, farmers’ willingness to participate, and what activities and innovations can be insured. To practically test this out, we will experiment with an example of net-zero farm practices – use of nitrification inhibitors – which are effective in reducing nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen fertilisers. It also increases nitrogen use efficiency, reduces leaching and indirectly improves water quality. We key into Portsmouth Water's objectives of promoting efficient nitrogen fertiliser management practices for reduced emissions and improved water quality, by engaging arable farmers in their catchment areas The key outputs from our project will include:
One of the main outcomes we aim to achieve at the end of this project is to design market attributes of collective farm insurance that can incentivise farmers to change their practices. Our research will accelerate the appearance on the market of a viable product which can drive changes in farmers’ practices, leading to material reductions in GHG and co-benefits of more sustainable farming practices. For our experiment, if farmers buy into collective insurance, they can jointly experiment with efficient fertilisers at low cost, and as well benefit from improved yield, increased adaptability and resilience. Also, efficient fertilisation means reduced farm emissions and water pollution and improved local environment which is beneficial to the rural populace. If you missed our annual network gathering last month, you can now watch the key presentations on YouTube, by clicking the names of our three distinguished and very thought-provoking speakers below:
Sue Pritchard is a farmer and chief executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Judith Batchelar OBE is deputy chair of the Environment Agency and former brand director for Sainsbury’s. Navaratnam Partheeban OBE is a farm vet and founder of the British Veterinary Ethnicity & Diversity Society. Key points from Sue’s presentation:
You can also watch past webinars here and listen to our podcast here. Follow AFN Network+ on Twitter/X and LinkedIn. |
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April 2024
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