GROWING MORE, WITH LESS –THE AGRITECH CHALLENGE

UK farmers are being asked to produce more crops on less land, with lower environmental impact in the face of our increasingly fast-changing climate. They are being asked to do this while fertiliser costs have risen four-fold in the past four years, animal feed is up 70 per cent in the last two, alongside well-publicised widespread labour shortages.

Who’d be a farmer?

But that’s not all. Now we’ve left the European Union, they are also having to get their heads around the government’s new environmental land management scheme, which will pay farmers for nature stewardship and replaces the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.

Despite all this, farmers are an ambitious lot. The National Farmers Union (NFU) wants to grow the UK’s agri-food exports 30 per cent by the end of the decade, increasing their value by £7.5 billion, bringing the total value to £33 billion.

According to the NFU, the UK food and farming industry is worth more than £120 billion to the national economy. British farmers produce 61 per cent of the nation’s food, look after 71 per cent of the landscape and provide jobs for around four million people in the UK.

It says that the farming industry’s number one priority is food production and security, but alongside that, farmers have and always will care, maintain and protect the environment.

So what to do? Boosting technology in agriculture seems the obvious answer. And we’re doing that already. In 2021, the UK saw more than £1 billion invested in agritech. Sounds a lot, but in Germany the figure was more than double that, at around £2.4 billion.

Tackling the fertiliser problem

Farmers worried about the huge rise in fertiliser costs could benefit from innovation from CCm Technologies.

The Swindon-based business has developed and patented a process which turns by-products from industrial and waste processing facilities into fertiliser.

CCm’s technology uses captured carbon dioxide from industrial power generation to stabilise materials such as ammonia and phosphates from agricultural and industrial waste to create new fertiliser products with significantly lower carbon and resource footprints.

Global food manufacturer Pepsico is already using CCm’s technology to turn potato peelings left over from making crisps into low-carbon fertiliser of consistent quality, which it can return to the UK farms where potatoes for Walkers crisps are grown – a great example of a true circular economy product.

Once supplied at scale, the fertiliser is expected to reduce Walkers’ potato-based carbon emissions by 70 per cent.

CCm’s technology connects to the factory’s anaerobic digestor, which uses food waste to generate nearly 75 per cent of the plant’s electricity. The clever tech takes the by-product waste from the anaerobic digestion process to create fertiliser. And alongside the fertiliser pellets, a co-product from the machine will be peat-free compost – a win/win.

The technology is also being used by Severn Trent Water to recycle waste into a ‘super fertiliser’ at Minworth treatment works near Birmingham.

CCm says its fertiliser pellets will be less expensive than traditional fertiliser, 20 per cent more efficient and can be used on existing farm machinery. A farmer’s crop will be more interesting to buyers

World’s biggest vertical farm to open in Lydney

The world's largest, and most advanced, vertical farm is currently being built at Lydney in Gloucestershire.

Jones Food Company builds world-scale vertical farms, growing fresh produce in a sustainable way. The first harvest from the 15,000 sq m facility is due this summer.

The company’s first vertical farm opened three years ago in North Lincolnshire. The Lydney farm will be three times bigger with a growing space of 148,000 sq ft.

This is the company’s first major capital investment since it received additional backing from The Ocado Group.

such as the big food manufacturers, because it’s low carbon and for the first time in decades will help sequester carbon back into the soil.

The products can also be adapted to provide the full spectrum of nutrient requirements for a particular crop and soil type.

Pawel Kisielewski, CCm Technologies’ CEO says he is already talking to other water treatment companies in the UK and overseas.

As the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which develops and promotes circular economies pointed out in its recent assessment of the fertiliser: “Overall, CCm’s technology eliminates waste and pollution, keeps materials in use and helps regenerate soils – a rare example of a company that ticks all three principles of the circular economy.”

Jones Food Company has also opened a new specialist innovation centre in Bristol. The company believes it can grow soft fruits, flowers, vegetables and even vines on a commercially viable scale in the coming years, significantly impacting the UK’s food security.

The Bristol Innovation Centre will be a testbed for the produce to be then grown at Lydney. The research and development team will study the growing requirements of various plants and varieties.

James Lloyd-Jones, founder and CEO of Jones Food Company, said: “Everyone recognises the importance of reducing emissions, food miles, pesticide use and water use, and generally being more sustainable in the way we grow our food.

“Our new Innovation Centre will build on what we’ve already achieved and diversify our produce range at scale, so that the UK can be wholly reliant on homegrown fresh produce.”