Former AHDB board member Paul Temple expresses concern that the UK’s agricultural levy body is drifting from its core mission of boosting farm productivity, and that AHDB research funds are being misdirected towards niche, low-yield projects. Describing the recently-announced closure of ADAS’ Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) for cereals and oilseeds as nothing short of a national scandal in view of the urgent need to close a widening yield gap, he urges AHDB to step in to safeguard the YEN programme and its valuable insights and dataset for industry-wide benefit.

 

Writing for SSA earlier in the year, I warned that the UK’s industry-funded Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has been losing its way for some considerable time, and that using levy funds to subsidise work for niche practices and markets is not its primary purpose.

 

My concerns were compounded by the departure of the commercially savvy Graham Wilkinson as chief executive - after barely 18 months in post - and the appointment of organic and regen ag champion Emily Norton as new AHDB chair.

 

Levy payers in the cropping sector have a very simple need: to turn around a 15-year productivity decline and close the widening yield gap in our major arable crops. 

 

At the time, I pointed out that a renewed focus on increasing food production would also amount to enlightened self-interest for AHDB, since the organisation’s future income depends on the physical amount of primary product sold off Britain’s farms.

 

Four months on, I’m afraid things are not looking good.

 

As an example, one of the first AHDB-funded studies to be announced since Emily Norton took over as chair is a three-year research project to investigate crop physiology traits in winter wheat that enhance weed competitiveness in low-input and organic farming systems.

 

According to the AHDB news release, this research will “reduce reliance on herbicides and support the transition to more environmentally friendly agricultural practices.”

 

Ask any wheat breeder, and they will tell you that focusing on traits that change the plant’s architecture to suppress weed competition is likely to take its toll on yield potential by diverting the crop’s energy away from grain production. Lower yields are not what UK growers need, and when Defra statistics for 2024 indicate that organic wheat accounted for just 1.3% of the national wheat area, this project represents a serious misuse of levy-payers’ money.

 

It is notable that none of the seed companies with UK-based wheat breeding programmes are partners in this project. Instead, it involves Cope Seeds, which describes itself as “the leading producer and supplier of organic seeds in the UK”, representing varieties from breeders in Germany, France, Czech Republic, Austria and Poland.

 

Other partners in the AHDB project include RSK ADAS and the Organic Research Centre (ORC).

 

Strange bedfellows, you might think, particularly given ADAS’ research expertise in chemical weed control and strategies to maintain the efficacy of herbicide use.

 

But perhaps not so strange as it turns out.

 

It was recently announced that, with effect from 1 September, ORC has become part of ADAS, although it will “retain the ORC brand and remain as a stand-alone business within the ADAS group of companies.”

 

Many leading figures within the organic sector were quick to applaud the move. Most said it was a positive development because it would secure ORC’s future, which to me suggests that the organisation’s future funding and survival as an independent entity were in doubt.

 

But I am rather more concerned about what it means for the future of ADAS.

 

A quick glance through the News section on the ORC website reveals that it is literally peppered with anti-pesticide, anti-GMO, and anti-gene editing blogs and releases from the likes of Friends of the Earth, GM Freeze, Beyond GM and Organic Farmers & Growers. 

 

A particular target for the (mis)information disseminated by ORC appears to be glyphosate, whose continued value and effectiveness for UK farmers ADAS has been working hard to safeguard, following the discovery of isolated resistance in the UK.

 

Of course, one could interpret it as a positive development that ORC’s research activities will be aligned with a more mainstream agricultural research organisation. This might help to moderate ORC’s approach.

 

Time will only tell whether, as part of ADAS, the Organic Research Centre’s status as a stand-alone business continues to involve amplifying and promoting the views of NGOs whose outlook is fundamentally opposed to so much of the applied research ADAS is associated with.

 

On the other hand, perhaps it is ADAS that is changing direction?

 

The announcement of the ADAS-ORC link-up and their joint involvement in AHDB’s organic wheat research project also follows news that ADAS is to discontinue its Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) project for cereals and oilseed rape after 13 years, due to a lack of sponsorship.

           

This is a major setback.

 

While national average yields for many crops have flat-lined or declined over the past 25 years, the yield potential of improved new varieties, and the more precise timing and application of inputs, have significantly advanced the scope for farm-level productivity improvements.

 

The ADAS YEN project has been a force for good in demonstrating that close attention to detail in all aspects of the crop production process holds the key to unlocking this untapped yield potential. YEN members’ average winter wheat yield in 2024 was 10.3t/ha, some 41% higher than the UK average of 7.3t/ha.

 

Commenting on the closure of YEN for cereals and oilseeds, Professor Roger Sylvester-Bradley, YEN founder and Head of Crop Performance at ADAS, said:

 

“The YEN has been a fantastic driving force for arable industry collaboration and has greatly enhanced our understanding of field yield. The vast YEN dataset, comprising thousands of crop yields built over so many harvests, has enabled us to pinpoint the causes behind yield variation – weather is only part of the puzzle. YEN provided us with definitive proof that, with a detail-oriented farming approach, 15 t/ha winter wheat yields are feasible almost anywhere in the UK.”

 

It is nothing short of a national scandal that this valuable dataset, and the agronomic expertise behind it, should be at risk of being lost.

 

If the Government is serious about its commitment that ‘food security is national security’, then optimising output on our most productive farmland should get at least equal billing against the billions spent on counter-productive land-sharing measures.

 

As for AHDB, if it prioritises anything with levy-payers’ research funding, then it should be throwing a lifeline to the ADAS YEN programme to safeguard its yield-enhancing insights and data for industry-wide benefit.

 

Paul Temple manages a mixed arable and livestock farm on the East Yorkshire Wolds, producing cereals for seed, oilseed rape, vegetables and beef. He is a past NFU vice-president, former chairman of the Copa Cogeca Cereals, Oilseeds and Protein Group, and founder of the European Biotech Forum. He is a former AHDB board member, and chaired the AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds sector board for seven years from 2015. Paul is also a board member of the Global Farmer Network, which brings together farming leaders from around the world to amplify the farmers’ voice in promoting trade, technology, sustainable farming, economic growth, and food security.