§ Lord Swinfenasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have received the third report from the Priorities Board for Research and Development in Agriculture and Food.
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Baroness Trumpington)The Priorities Board for Research and Development in Agriculture and Food has submitted its third report to the Agriculture Ministers and to the chairman cf the Agricultural and Food Research Council. We greatly appreciate the work which Dr. Brian Smith and the members of the board have put into their report.
The report gives advice to the sponsors about future resource allocations and priorities for the publicly-funded agricultural and food R&D effort as a whole. It also discusses a number of matters related to the R&D programme. The board supports the Government's aims to encourage industry to take a greater responsibility for funding near market R&D. This will produce changes to the balance and content of the sponsors' research programmes, which the board has taken into account in making its recommendations on future resource allocations. These changes have also persuaded programme into four categories: natural resources, plants, animals and food. The report recommends that the allocation of expenditure to each sector should be as follows:
Natural Resources 12 per cent.
Plants 34-5 per cent.
Animals 38-5 per cent.
Food 15 per cent.
The sponsors are agreed that, subject to a full consideration of the resource implications, the recommendations should guide the allocation of resources to the future research and development programme. Discussions will be held between the sponsors to plan the implementation of the recommendations.
The sponsors have also agreed that the report should be published. This is now being arranged and advance copies are being placed in the Library of the House.