The Chair of an influential agricultural parliamentary group has stressed the enormous potential of East Anglia’s agricultural research and life sciences sectors following a visit to the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB).

George Freeman MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture, visited the crop research centre in Cambridge as part of his drive to unlock the East of England’s significant strength in agricultural research and food science. Speaking afterwards, he said:

“By linking Norfolk’s traditional strength in agriculture and food sciences with institutions in Cambridge and specifically the NIAB we can unlock lots of new opportunities in this area.”

George met with the senior leadership team at NIAB, including CEO & Director (Tina Barsby), Head of Research (Andy Greenland), Director of Crops & Agronomy (Stuart Knight), Head of Crops Research (Jane Thomas) and Head of Non-Food/Novel Crops (Lydia Smith), hearing first-hand about the work taking place along the length of the research pipeline to help improve the yield, climate resilience and resource use efficiency of our major crops.

After touring the NIAB site, including new glasshouse, growth room facilities and plant genetics laboratory, George said: “Last week’s Foresight report into food security identified a clear need to support and encourage our agricultural research and food science sectors. Producing more agricultural outputs with fewer inputs is one of the biggest challenges facing us in the 21st Century, and, through world-leading independent crop research centres such as NIAB, Britain is well-placed to play a key role in addressing that challenge and the economic benefits this will entail.

“However, much of the research taking place in the UK’s life sciences sector requires closer co-ordination to ensure our rapidly advancing knowledge-base is translated into useful products and practices on the ground. The urgency of the food security challenge, and the long-term nature of the research involved, are such that we need to act now. That’s why I am encouraging those in the industry and research community to explore setting up a specific Technology Innovation Centre for the food and agricultural sciences in the UK to bring together our leading scientists in collaboration.

“With leadership and collaboration, our food sciences industry can be a major driver of economic growth over the next decade and East Anglia is extremely well placed to benefit from this.”