Agriculture: Research

(asked on 26th September 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much (a) her Department, (b) the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and (c) other public bodies spent on each category of agricultural research in each of the last 10 years; what estimate she has made of public expenditure on research and development on agriculture as a proportion of total spending on research and development in each of those years; and what proportion of publicly-funded research and development related to agriculture is (i) basic and (ii) applied research.


Answered by
George Eustice Portrait
George Eustice
This question was answered on 15th October 2014

Defra’s investment in agricultural research over the past 10 years can be categorised as follows:

Financial year

Research spend (£million)

Farming

Agri-environment

Soils

Animal health & welfare

Total

2004/2005

37.0

2.7

1.2

38.5

79.4

2005/2006

35.7

2.8

1.3

37.9

77.8

2006/2007

29.1

2.7

1.1

38.6

71.5

2007/2008

25.0

1.6

1.0

37.3

64.9

2008/2009

22.7

1.8

0.8

34.1

59.4

2009/2010

26.0

1.8

1.4

31.9

61.1

2010/2011

23.0

1.9

1.3

32.9

59.0

2011/2012

23.5

2.1

1.6

30.7

57.8

2012/2013

21.1

2.0

1.7

27.4

52.1

2013/2014

16.2

1.1

1.8

24.5

43.5

The majority of this investment was in applied research.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s (BBSRC) investment in agriculture-related research has steadily increased over the past 10 years. The expenditure can be broken down as follows:

Financial Year

Research spend (£million)

Basic

Applied

Total

2004/05

16

42.2

58.2

2005/06

22

45.1

67.1

2006/07

26.5

44.7

71.2

2007/08

28

47.1

75.2

2008/09

33

50.8

83.8

2009/10

33.3

56.4

89.6

2010/11

30.7

57.5

88.2

2011/12

30.9

60.6

91.6

2012/13

23.1

66

89.2

2013/14

27.7

67.1

94.9

Department for International Development (DfID) has invested the following amounts in agricultural research over the past decade:

Financial Year

Research spend (£million)

2004/2005

37.1

2005/2006

38.6

2006/2007

35.9

2007/2008

38.3

2008/2009

40.6

2009/2010

65.1

2010/2011

67.9

2011/2012

86.9

2012/2013

69.2

2013/2014

94.9

As with Defra, the majority of this investment was in applied research.

Together, Defra, BBSRC, and DfID’s investments in agricultural research account for more than three-quarters of the total spend by public bodies in this area. Smaller, but significant investments are made by the devolved administrations and other research councils., The Scottish Government, for example, annually invests around £50 million in research on rural affairs, food, and environment. A substantial proportion of this investment is focussed on both basic and applied agricultural science research.

Figures on the total government spend on research across all categories are held by the Office of National Statistics. However, information regarding total public investment in agricultural research and development (R&D) as a proportion of total Government spending on R&D across all categories is not readily available.

Defra is currently working with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to deliver Action 1 of the Agri-Tech Strategy: a comprehensive mapping and evaluation of both private and government funding for research into agricultural technologies. This exercise will determine the total spend on agricultural R&D in the UK, categorise agricultural research investments by topic and identify the relative proportions of funding for basic and applied agricultural research in the UK. The findings of this work will be published next year.

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