§ Mr. PaiceTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if she has received a report from the priorities board for research and development in agriculture and food; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Gillian ShephardThe priorities board for research and development in agriculture and food has submitted its report to Agriculture Ministers and the chairman of the Agricultural and Food Research Council and it is published today.
In producing its report the board has taken into account the recommendations of its six advisory sectoral groups. It has developed its recommendations on the basis of level funding and has therefore balanced recommendations for increased funding in support of high priority work with others suggesting areas where work could be reduced.
488WThe board has recommended that funding of the horticulture and food sectors should be increased, that a new programme of research into non-food crops should be initiated, and that to provide funding for these recommendations, research in the animals sectors, particularly on ruminants, and in the arable crops area should be reduced. The board has also recommended that research in the environmental sector should be maintained at its present level. The board has recommended considerable re-direction of funding within all the sectors to provide for new high priority research.
The board has also recommended that the agriculture departments and the Agricultural and Food Research Council should continue to provide a forum in which scientists, policy makers and industrialists can meet to ensure that publicly and privately funded research and development align effectively. However, having fulfilled its present remit it has said that it considers another full-scale review of priorities unnecessary for a while. As a non-departmental public body the board is due for periodic review in 1994. With this in view, the Government have therefore decided to dissolve the board, with effect from the end of this year.
We are grateful to Sir Anthony Tennant and all the members of the board for the work they have put into this report. The recommendations contained in it will, subject to a full consideration of the resource implications, help to guide the allocation of resources in the future research and development programme. Discussion will be held between the agriculture departments and the Agricultural and Food Research Council to plan the implementation of the recommendations.
Copies of the report are available in the Library of the House.