Flanagan aiming to drive development in Scotland
A recognition last year that the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) needed to “up its game considerably” in Scotland has led to the recent appointment of the organisation’s first overall director of operations on this side of the Border.
With the AHDB covering four mains areas in Scotland, cereals and oilseeds, potatoes, dairy and horticulture – the beef, lamb and pork industries being covered by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) – Paul Flanagan has been tasked with reviewing the organisation’s Scottish operations with a view to seeing them run more effectively.
Flanagan, who previously worked with dairy farmer co-operative First Milk and the drinks company Diageo, combines his Scottish role with that of strategy director for dairy with the organisation.
Speaking at a press briefing yesterday, he pointed to the considerable successes of the monitor and strategic farm approaches in the cropping and potato sectors, along with the AHDB’S collaborations with Quality Meat Scotland on mixed farms, which had been highly effective at delivering messages and prompting innovation – with farmers learning not only from the invited speakers but also from each other.
He admitted, however, that his organisation needed to “pick up the pace” on dairy and horticulture in Scotland. On this front he said the launch last week of a new strategic dairy farm project had gone some way to addressing any shortfalls as would the recent appointment of an additional dairy knowledge exchange specialist.
With a staff often operatingin scotland, he said that close co-operation with other bodies was crucial to reach all sectors of the industry – and ensuring a collaborative approach was another key element of his new role.
And he said that this approach could be extended to all operations of the research and extension services – adding that greater levels of collaboration across the fields of research, innovation and knowledge exchange would be required if the UK was to achieve the seismic shift in farm productivity necessary to compete on the world market.
But Flanagan said Scotland was well placed to lead on this front –with a smaller, more closely-knit community of institutes, research centres and educational departments.
With £3.1 million of levies gathered from Scotland he said that the excellent research facilities saw over £7m of the AHDB’S research budget come north of the Border.
He also stated that the “temporary” solution for the long-running levy repatriation saga seemed to be working well and revealed that, as well as funding trade missions, the £2m ring-fenced for crossborder promotion would also be used in a soon-tobe-launched “meat and health” campaign.
While not directly aimed at countering the claims of the increasingly vocal vegan minority he said that the campaign would focus on the positive benefits of eating meat rather than tackling those with extremist views. lA government-led review looking at AHDB’S purpose and priorities, its strengths and weaknesses launched this week will seek views from the industry on the organisation’s performance. Running until 9 November, views are sought on the AHDB’S current activities, including governance, levy payer representation, funding and levy collection.