Professor Julie Ingram in international team calling for new approaches to research in agriculture

Professor Julie Ingram from the Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) within the University of Gloucestershire is the co-author of a research paper published today in leading international journal Nature Food.

The paper enititled ‘On-Farm Experimentation to transform global agriculture’ is call to action from a growing movement of scientists and practitioners to take a fresh approach to research in agriculture, which is key to solving climate change, biodiversity crisis, feeding the world – an approach that integrates farmers’ and scientists’ knowledge to fuel innovation, and harnesses digital technologies to do much more powerful and practical experiments on the ground.

Professor Ingram said: “This was an exciting opportunity to work with a team of highly regarded international researchers and bring together our collective experiences, principles and visions for On-Farm Experimentation (OFE), as a collaborative solution that bridges farmers and scientists’ perspectives. “Farmer-centric On-Farm Experimentation harnesses farmers’ knowledge to innovate, which formal research has largely been missing out on even though it is fundamental to solving agricultural challenges globally.

“OFE is rising across the world, driven by digital technologies, the need for decentralised research and other factors, but needs support.”

The team of international authors from eight countries was led by Myrtille Lacoste and included: Simon Cook, Matthew McNee, Danielle Gale, Julie Ingram, Véronique Bellon-Maurel, Tom MacMillan, Roger Sylvester-Bradley, Daniel Kindred, Rob Bramley, Nicolas Tremblay, Louis Longchamps, Laura Thompson, Julie Ruiz, Fernando Oscar García, Bruce Maxwell, Terry Griffin, Thomas Oberthür, Christian Huyghe, Weifeng Zhang, John McNamara and Andrew Hall. 

The paper can be accessed from the Nature Food journal website: DOI 10.1038/s43016-021-00424-4

The publication follows the inaugural international conference on On-Farm Experimentation #OFE2021 www.ofe2021.com in October 2021 with the theme “Digital Tools for a Scalable Transformative Pathway”.

The conference attracted 170 delegates from 36 countries and drafted policy recommendations for the OECD Cooperation Research Programme. 

Notes to editors:

The Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, plays an important role in shaping rural development policy and practice in the UK, Europe and further afield. The CCRI is one of the largest specialist rural research centre in the UK, working at the interface of agriculture, society and the environment. 

Press contact: Professor Julie Ingram: jingram@glos.ac.uk