05 September 2022
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Second site to participate in IFM and grower impact work.
ROTHAMSTED Research's 400-hectare site in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, has now joined LEAF’s network of innovation centres and demonstration farms which include some of the UK’s leading research establishments and most progressive growers looking to provide scientific evidence around the impact of Integrated Farm Management (IFM) and ensure it works at farm level.
Rothamsted’s North Wyke site, specialising in sustainable grazing livestock systems, has already been a LEAF Innovation Site since 2015 and Director and CEO of Rothamsted Research, Professor Angela Karp, said extending its collaboration with LEAF will better enable wide-ranging research to reach farmers on the ground – from gene to field. This will help accelerate the capabilities of growers to raise the productivity of their crop systems, tackle weed, disease and insect resistance, improve soil health, enhance natural capital, and reduce their carbon and nutrient footprint.
"Developing closer ties between researchers and practitioners will refine and improve performances for both. We are extremely honoured to become a LEAF Innovation Centre and, alongside our North Wyke site, look forward to the opportunities it will bring to advance fresh, dynamic, and responsive approaches to knowledge development and exchange that are aligned with the needs of farmers,” she said.
Rothamsted Research joins 14 other LEAF Innovation Centres – Agrii Throws Farm Technology Centre, Bangor University, Bayer Crop Science, the University of Reading’s Centre for Dairy Research, The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Harper Adams University, The James Hutton Institute, Newcastle University Farms, NIAB EMR, Rothamsted Research North Wyke, The Royal Agricultural University, SRUC’s The Dairy Cattle Research and Innovation Centre, SRUC’s Hill & Mountain Research Centre, and Stockbridge Technology Centre.
Chairman of LEAF, Philip Wynn, said: “Rothamsted is a vibrant hub for global science, underpinned by history, innovation, and fresh thinking, working across different scales and disciplines to improve crop and livestock performance, resilience, and value. We are honoured to be forging even closer links with them at this crucial time for agriculture and hugely excited about the opportunities this partnership will offer our members and the wider farming community to access the latest research, ideas, and innovations to advance more resilient global farming and food systems."
