Earl of Leicester
Main Page: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Earl Leicester (Con)
My Lords, I refer to my farming interests as listed in the register. Many noble Lords have highlighted the short-term problems of increased production costs resulting from the ongoing labour shortages. I add my support to those statements but will not dwell on them, other than to confirm that they exist and that all farm businesses are suffering as a result.
In the long term, if the Government really are going to support the UK farming industry and help it to become world-beating, they must improve the teaching of agriculture in colleges and universities. It is poor and outdated and has, for example, barely started to address regenerative agriculture. We have a fantastic, keen new apprentice in our farming business. He has been with us since September, but he is not the first to have become demoralised with the three days per week that he spends at Easton College as part of his apprenticeship. The agricultural colleges are tired. Their principles of education are based on very traditional systems and practices; they have been more a way of life for farmers’ sons and daughters. Agriculture must attract students from outside the industry. It needs to stimulate and inspire in similar ways to other industries. Three of the four most recent tractor drivers we have employed have degrees from Russell Group universities, and two are not from an agricultural background.
John Deere estimates that 80% of combine harvester operators have little idea of the full capabilities of their combines. This leads me to my second point: that the general low-skilled labour demand could and should be replaced in the long term by technology. This would be one way of making farming attractive to an intelligent and ambitious workforce. Also, government must invest in long-term research, by which I mean more than the normal three-year projects, and must encourage a meeting of minds between academics—the scientists—and practitioners—the farmers.