The Minister of State at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Dame Angela Eagle announced the launch of the new government-backed initiative, ‘AgriScale’, which is set out to support the agricultural tech sector in the United Kingdom.
The announcement occurred during Dame Eagle’s speech at the World Agri-Tech Innovation summit in London yesterday (September 22), marking her first public appearance as Minister of State at Defra following the cabinet reshuffle earlier this month.
When speaking at the summit, the newly appointed minister set out her vision for the future of the UK food and farming sector, with a “strong emphasis on innovation, sustainability, and cross-sector collaboration”, and she also described the purpose of AgriScale.
Dame Eagle said: “I am thrilled to share publicly for the first time an innovative new pilot programme; ‘AgriScale’, that will support agri-tech businesses to address specific manufacturing challenges on their start-up to scale-up journey.
“This will help to drive accelerated development of new technologies and support growth of this key sector.”
AgriScale
The programme represents a new cross-government partnership, made up of Defra, Innovate UK, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult partners, the Manufacturing Technology Centre, and Warwick Manufacturing Group.
Dame Eagle stated the partnership is “powered by the Industrial Strategy and inspired by experience from the automotive sector.”
The AgriScale programme will start next month, according to Dame Eagle, who said she hopes it will underline Defra’s commitment to growth and innovation in the UK food and farming sector.
Tracy De Groose, CEO of William Reed – parent company of Rethink Events, which runs the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit – said: “The presence of Dame Angela Eagle at this year’s summit is a powerful signal of the UK’s intent to lead on agri-tech innovation.
“Her address sets the stage for meaningful collaboration between government and industry at a time of unprecedented change.”
