The agri-food market environment, where the Scottish food and drink sector operates is often characterised by high price instability in product and input markets. In such an environment, effective business relationships along supply chains have the possibility to reduce uncertainty. For instance, by securing a more stable inflow of orders and increasing quality and safety assurances associated with inputs.
Alongside Jane, five academics were selected to be SAG members, all of whom have worked on various aspects of rural policies and policy-making, including rural proofing - an alternative term for applying a rural lens - in various countries.
Introduction:
Supporting Rural Women
Roundworms and sheep scab mites are common throughout the UK and threaten the health, welfare and productivity of grazing livestock. Infections are commonly controlled using organophosphate dips and/or anthelmintics. The development and dissemination of resistance to these compounds and variation in the epidemiology of roundworms resulting from changes in climate and farm management are making the sustainable control of these parasites more challenging, particularly roundworms.
Scotland’s pork sector is under financial pressure. One way to address this could be to increase the value added to Scottish pork. This case study, which focusses on a Scottish pork producer, provides insights into an enterprise serving the high value pork products market and the challenges it faces.
In 2018, the UK generated over 222 million tonnes of waste when including household, commercial and industrial waste. This waste was not only made up of typically ‘disposable’ items, but also included items and materials that are reusable, repairable or could have been disassembled to save components for repurposing.
Intercropping - where two or more crop species are grown simultaneously on the same piece of land – could provide one solution: intercrops increase diversity at the scale of entire fields and have the potential to boost production with fewer inputs. There are many ways in which intercropping can be practiced, ranging from mixtures harvested together for use as ‘whole crops’ or for separation post-harvest, to relay intercrops grown together but harvested on separate dates, through to unharvested companion crops supporting the growth of the main cash crop.
The theme for this year’s Arable Scotland is ‘Innovating for the Future’. There will be three ‘Arable Conversations’ which will focus on key topics affecting the industry.
SEFARI has a wee bit of ‘previous’ at BSAS, having organised, sponsored and hosted a number of sessions over the past few years, including a panel debate on ‘Can we have our meat and eat it?’ in 2019; a virtual One Health session at the height of COVID in 2021; and a session on ‘Reducing GHGs from animal agriculture’ in 2022.