Increased integration of research with practice making ‘significant’ contribution to UK crop production

This is the general consensus of the tenth AHDB Agronomists’ Conference, which highlighted the value of farmer-led knowledge exchange initiatives and the importance of combining increasingly limited funds and resources. Delegates also heard how major new initiatives have opened up significant opportunities for the UK’s research community to tap into multi-million pound investment programmes. Around 300 agronomists, growers and other members of the arable industry watched the 2016 conference, which saw AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds and AHDB Potatoes unite to showcase evidence-based developments in agronomy for the first time. Conducted under the 2016 conference theme ‘Inspire, Innovate, Integrate’, the unifying message was that ‘integration’ in crop production was the most important, yet often hardest, thing to get right. More