Science and Agriculture in Modern Scotland

Professor John Hillman

Director of SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee

Filed 27Aug 04

SCRI Press Release:
A synopsis of his address to the Scottish Society for Crop Research
on Wednesday 25th August 2004 at 2pm.

Scotland’s achievements in agriculture and horticulture over the past 200 years have echoed around the world, as new types of science, engineering, and technology were introduced to enhance the competitive position of a once-dominant industry. Improved cultivars and livestock breeds, automation, specialist growers and livestock producers, dedicated university departments and research institutes, quality assurance and virus-testing schemes, industrial processing of plant products, sophisticated supply networks, plus a robust regulatory environment associated with a dedicated supportive government department, provided exemplary agricultural systems for other countries. As Scotland’s economy expanded and diversified, the relative importance, costs and benefits of agriculture declined.

Scottish agriculture is undergoing profound change as a result of
(i) new legislative impositions and modified subsidy arrangements applied unequally throughout the EU leading to further distortion of the market place;
(ii) increased efficiency of agricultural and horticultural production;
(iii) a shrinking workforce;
(iv) greater levels of competition;
(v) the development and influence of supermarkets;
(vi) distance from rapidly growing markets;
(vii) changing purchasing preferences;
(viii) diminished political influence and lack of positive public profile; and
(ix) reduced access to competitively valuable intellectual property.

Creation of a modern and prosperous agricultural industry is dependent on the degree to which
(i) it will be permitted to function as a wealth-creating industry,
(ii) attract new entrants and inward investments,
(iii) develop the necessary scale of operation to have ‘market-muscle’ through horizontal and vertical integration;
(iv) continue to improve efficiency; and
(v) embrace new types of science, engineering, and technology.

Given the variability in operating the emerging Common Agricultural Policy throughout the Member States, global competition, and the massive declines in the EU plant-breeding and agricultural-chemistry industries, profitability will be difficult to achieve for livestock producers and all but the most efficient cereal producers unless niche markets are captured. Rescue for the inefficient will come through tourism, a complex of well-meaning but sometimes ill-considered publicly-funded environmental schemes, or through alternative activities.

New uses and markets for existing crops, new crops and crop products, new types of automation, and a stunning array of new technologies are offering major opportunities for the industry and for users of its products and services elsewhere in the world. A profound change in the agriculturally relevant research environment of Scotland arising from the switch from science-led to policy-led research, could - if not properly managed - impact adversely on the flows and uptake of agriculturally relevant intellectual property, restricting Scotland’s role in a global knowledge-based bio-economy based on renewable resources, and consequently diminishing Scotland’s involvement in developing the tools to address issues such as the impacts of climate change, improving diets, and revitalising the rural economy.

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Science and Agriculture in Modern Scotland

Professor John Hillman

Director of SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee

Filed 27Aug 04