Senior Science Policy Adviser for FCO Science and Innovation Network in China
28th November 2016 Beijing
UK and China Join Hands in Agri-Tech Innovation
MOU Signing, witnessed by Michelle McIlveen, Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister and Holly White, Science Counsellor in British Embassy China
Agriculture has dominated China’s economy for as long as its history can tell. Although its share of GDP dropped to 9% recently, Agri-Tech has become more crucial for the country to feed its 1.4 billion people and tackle its dire environmental challenges. This is reflected in China’s 13th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) which has set aside £3 billion for its national agri-tech programmes. The opportunities for the UK in this sector are numerous.
SIN China delivered a series of high profile events to catalyse UK-China collaboration in Agri-tech at the 23rd Yangling Agricultural Hi-Tech Fair in China on 5-9 November. This is a major event for the Agri-tech sector which attracted 1.7 million visitors this year, both international and from across China. It succeeded in securing business transactions worth RMB116.7 billion (£14 billion). The SIN China team managed a 50 plus UK delegation of researchers and companies, led by Innovate UK and the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs of Northern Ireland.
It was the first time for many UK delegates to visit this small city in central China, an hour’s drive to the Terra Cotta Army and the ancient city Xi’an, but they were too busy to do justice to the tourist attractions. There were two key events for the UK delegation: a roundtable and a forum focussed on UK China Agri-Tech Innovation, both of which involved about 70 key players in China’s agri-tech sector.
The roundtable provided helpful insights from the senior Chinese officials on China’s national plan on agri-tech research, the country’s overall agriculture policy and the encouraging progress of on IP issues. The event culminated in the signing of an MoU between Innovate UK and CRTDC to launch a longstanding cooperation agreement in agri-tech innovation. This will develop partnerships in a range of areas, including big data in agriculture, precision agriculture, intelligent agricultural equipment, crop & animal health and high quality nutritious foods.
The UK China Agri-Tech Innovation Forum on the following day offered a podium for the representatives from 40 UK and Chinese agri-tech agencies and companies. They were chosen from the 130 organisations to present their work to potential partners. As each was given 5 minutes only, the 4 hour morning session was a blur of presentations! Participants commented that the event was an effective networking opportunity, and left with lots of ideas to follow up.
Pity no one noticed the Union Jack is upside down!
This superbly organised visit shone a light on the potential opportunities for collaboration between the UK and the wider agri-tech and agri-food partners in the UK. It is clear that there are shared learning opportunities for all partners in these future collaborations, and I look forward to developing links established during this visit.
Jonathan – N8 AgriFood Operations Director
Echoing the previous comments – thanks Helena and congratulations to the team (and support staff) for an excellently coordinated and productive visit. We look forward to building on the strong collaborative foundations created between UK Agri-Tech and China during the visit.
Simon
Agrimetrics Ltd
Congratulations to the whole team and especially Helena for this excellent work. Agritech is an important priority for the Science and Innovation Network and the UK has lots of expertise to offer.
Many thanks to you Helena and your team for bringing us together. It proved to be a very worthwhile visit from University of Nottingham perspective with plenty to follow up on areas such as collaborative R&D, short courses, studentships and exchange programme to name a few.
Great also to meet colleagues from across the UK network too.
ATB
Amreesh
Great to be part of this. I am already actively working on following up the promising contacts established.
Well done all this looks as if it was an excellent start to a very promising initiative, well done all
Many thanks Helena
Janet
CEO DIT ATO