Agri-Tech Industrial Strategy: Evaluation Scoping Study and Baseline
The UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies was published in 2013 as one of the Government’s 11 Industrial Strategies. The Strategy sets a vision for the UK to become a world leader in agricultural technology, innovation and sustainability. The Government has now published SQW’s report providing a baseline of the sector, and an evaluation framework setting out the methods that can be used to assess the effects of the Strategy.
The Strategy covers a diverse range of activities including the agriculture industry (primary production for both food and non-food uses); areas such as soil science, crop and livestock genetics; agri-chemicals; and general purpose technologies such as remote sensors, satellites and robotics. The actions within the Strategy are also wide-ranging, including applied R&D funding to help ideas move from the laboratory to the market, upgrading infrastructure to encourage greater collaboration between industry and the research base, support for exports and inward investment, and a series of influencing actions including the formation of a Leadership Council to drive the Strategy forward.
SQW led a consortium, including Cambridge Econometrics, BMG Research, and Collison and Associates Ltd to undertake a study, with two main objectives:
- to estimate the current size of the agri-tech sector and make projections for the sector based on its current structure and global trends up to the 2030; the purposed of the projections is to provide an informed view of how the sector might have developed without the Strategy
- to identify the options, and make recommendations, on how the Strategy should be evaluated, including advising on the type of monitoring information that should be collected to inform the evaluation.
