HC Deb 10 December 1990 vol 182 c316W
Dr. David Clark

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the amount of money his Ministry gave to fund(a) arable crops research, (b) animal health, (c) animal physiology and genetics, (d) engineering research, (e) food research, (f) grassland and environmental research, (g) horticultural research and (h) plant science research at Agriculture and Food Research Council institutes since 1980; and what are his estimates for 1991 and 1992.

Mr. Gummer

My Department has a significant programme of R and D to provide the necessary scientific base for its policy decisions. In 1990–91 this Department will be spending £121 million on R and D, of which some £45 million (37 per cent.) is at the AFRC institutes.

Information in the detailed format requested is available only from 1987–88 onwards and this is provided in table 1. Comparative data for earlier years can be produced only at disproportionate cost. Tables 2 and 3 give details of that information readily available for the earlier years.

The data exclude central administration and superannuation costs provided by MAFF which are used to support AFRC institutes.

Table 3
£ million
April—March years 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87
(a) Plant Breeding 5.0 5.1 4.4
(b) Crop Protection 7.3 7.1 6.0
(c) Soils and Crop Nutrition 3.7 3.4 2.6
(d) Crop Production 6.6 6.7 5.8
(e) Animal Breeding 1.7 1.8 1.6
(f) Animal Disease 7.1 5.9 5.2
(g) Animal Nutrition 1.6 2.0 1.8
(h) Animal Production 7.1 7.3 5.6
(i) Food 6.0 6.6 6.7
(j) Statistics and Computing 0.8 0.7 0.8
TOTAL 46.9 46.6 40.5