New skills set to be the base of future success in farming and growing

Farming and growing is at a crossroads. Ongoing labour issues are making it harder for businesses to find the people they need to maintain their operations, while new technologies are rapidly evolving.

Clearly, this represents an opportunity - but it can be difficult for farmers and growers to capitalise on this as perceptions remain that technology can be expensive to adopt, complicated to set up and difficult to maintain.

However, in its research paper, Review of research and innovation that will impact the English agricultural and horticultural workforce, commissioned by TIAH, the University of Warwick found there are six key technology areas which are already driving change in the industry.

These are:

• Autonomous robots
• Biological pest controls
• Carbon and green technologies
• Remote sensing
• Big data analytics
• Precision breeding

And although these innovations are already present in the industry, the University of Warwick's study found these technologies - and the skills which are essential to making them a success - will play a growing part in the evolution of agriculture and horticulture.

New skills essential to successful farming and growing businesses

Because of this, the study clearly states the skill set the workforce uses will need to change to allow the industry to thrive.

Professor Richard Napier, Deputy Head of School at the University of Warwick's School of Life Sciences, said: "Agriculture and horticulture need to continue to invest in innovative solutions to remain competitive. It can’t be emphasised enough how important it is that skills training evolves at least as rapidly as the introduction of these new technologies."

You can download the executive summary in full here.