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.
