THE WELSH PLANT BREEDING STATION (Hansard, 16 January 1984)

§ The Earl of Swinton

The degree to which the Agriculture and Food Research Council (AFRC) is able to protect the budgets of the institutes it funds depends upon the financial resources available to it. The grant-in-aid to the council from the Science Budget is £46.0 million in 1983–84, and has been announced as being £46.5 million in 1984–85 (a reduction in real terms); and in the two following years the Advisory Board for the Research Councils has recommended further reductions in real terms, though these will fall to be considered afresh in each year's public expenditure review. The income which the council will receive from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1984–85 for commissioned work is also likely to represent a reduction on the 1983–84 amount.

Faced with this situation, the council is having to take difficult decisions in order to ensure the continuation of its priority programmes and at the same time to meet the continuous demand for flexibility and change. In common with other AFRC-funded establishments, the programmes of the Welsh Plant Breeding Station have been subject to scrutiny and it is inevitable that some work has had to be curtailed. I understand that, whereas the 1983–84 recurrent budget for the station is £3.2 million, present estimates of the funds likely to be available in 1984–85 and succeeding years are of the order of £3 million annually.

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The council nevertheless continues to encourage the station to extend its traditional roles of breeding improved forage crop varieties, of studying animal performance and of general agronomic work on hill and upland pastures, an intention reinforced by recent investment in additional upland land near Trecastle in Powys. Moreover, the survey of cereal pathogens and oat breeding will continue and advanced barley lines will be given trials. Thus, the council acknowledges and intends to protect the continuing major responsibilities of the station, which are of value both to agriculture in general and to Welsh agriculture in particular.