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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assistance her Department is providing to support farmers in utilising new technologies to increase productivity.

Support for farmers in utilising new technologies is provided through the Countryside Productivity scheme which is part of the Rural Development Programme for England.

For example, the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural productivity and sustainability (EIP-Agri) provides grant support to projects which link research and innovation with farming or forestry practices. It also provides capital grant funding to drive best practice, innovation and targeted projects for Government and industry priorities such as animal health, resource management, and arable and horticultural productivity.

Wider government initiatives include the Agri-Tech Strategy launched in 2013. £60 million is being invested in a catalyst to fund agri-tech projects and £80 million is invested in four world class Centres for Agricultural Innovation. This is to develop and support the wide scale adoption of innovation and technology, developing skills and capability in the food and farming supply chain.