§ Mr. John EvansTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list those agricultural research and development projects from which funding was withdrawn during 1988.
§ Mr. Ryder1. The resources devoted to agricultural research and development by and for my Department were increased in 1988–89. The cost rose from £81.7 million in 1987–88 to an estimated £85.6 million in 1988–89. The majority of the work is included in rolling programmes commissioned with the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service and the Agricultural and Food Research Council. Other ad hoc projects are performed by a variety of contractors under short term contracts.
2. The rolling programmes of commissioned research are under constant review and adjustment, in the light of changing priorities and the prospects for useful results. A number of individual experiments and studies in each programme will have ceased in 1988–89 to be replaced by new work. It would not be possible to list such adjustments except at disproportionate cost. The following short-term contracts were completed during 1988–89; none was terminated prematurely.
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Project title Contractor Group breeding scheme University College, Wales Potato clones partially resistant to Globodera Pallida National Institute of Agricultural Botany Buffer feeding as a means of increasing the efficiency of grass use University College of North Wales Response in the yields of milk fat and protein to nutrition Leeds University Biodegradation of thatching straw Bath University Storage of Rubus mother stocks Edinburgh School of Agriculture Free convective airflows in perishable crop storage Silsoe college Anthelmintic resistance in sheep nematodes Nottingham University Tuberculin production by recombinant E. Coli Surrey University Investigation of mastitis in sheep Royal Veterinary College The dynamic behaviour of specialised spraying vehicles Leeds University Improvement of fruit quality and control of tree vigour East Mailing Research Station Maintenance of soil structure, fertility and fruit quality in herbicide managed orchards East Mailing Research Station Methods for rapid classification of carcasses Food Research Institute The prevention of bolting in early protected celery Glasshouse Crops Research Institute Micropropogation of FI hybrid lettuce Glasshouse Crops Research Institute The nitrogen cycle on organic farms University College of Wales Salmonella shedding in poultry Bristol University A mathematical study of the genetics and epidemiology of nematode parasites resistant to anthelmintics Strathclyde University Modified atmosphere packaging of tree fruits to retain quality East Mailing Research Station The palatability and nutritive value of low-glucosinolates Royal Veterinary College The development of a rapid and simple method for the analysis of glucosinalate content of rapeseed Food Research Institute Broken bones in culled layer hens Food Research Institute A pilot study of the interdependence of farming and the local rural economy Ecotec Consulting Ltd. Pilot study of grazing by hares and deer on double low oilseed rape Game Conservancy Trust Reed beds for agricultural effluent treatment Birmingham University The impact on the rural economy of replacing agricultural land use by planting woodland Laurence Gould Consultants Ltd. Flow rate serving for automatic cluster removal on small ruminants Cranfield Institute of Technology Review of the risk of exposure of dairy cows to bracken Institute for Grassland and Animal Production