Farming Conference to assess rural impact of Brexit
British Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Andrea Leadsom will address delegates later today.
Michelle McIlveen, the Agriculture and Rural Development Minister at Stormont, will be one of the panellists at a subsequent discussion.
“Thrive or Survive” is this year’s theme which the organisers say is fitting given the changes that will come to the sector post-Brexit.
The conference has been held in Oxford University for 80 years and has established a reputation for strong debate.
Fifteen people who are developing their skills and passion for leadership roles within the global agri-food sector have been invited to attend as part of an OFC initiative funded and supported by Massey Ferguson.
Among them are the former Macra na Feirme president Alan Jagoe from Carrigaline, who is the current leader of CEGA, the European Council of Young Farmers, and Fiona Hanna from Newry.
Conference chairman Martin Davies said at the heart of every farm and rural business there is someone responsible for the key decisions — individuals who drive the business forward.
They recognise the opportunities, seize the agenda, and forge the path that others will follow. The conference offers them an excellent opportunity to develop their networks and sector knowledge, he added.
William Judge, from Massey Ferguson, said now, more than ever, strong leadership, clear vision and confident decision-making are pivotal to guiding global farming through the enormous challenges ahead.
Meanwhile, an alternative annual gathering of Britain’s sustainable and organic food movements — the Oxford Real Farming Conference — will be held at the Town Hall.
Meanwhile, a tillage business manager with Glanbia, has won the top project award in the UCD diploma course in integrated pest management.
Charlie Purcell, from a tillage farm at Lisronagh, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, graduated from UCD in 2013 with a degree in agricultural science.
He joined Glanbia’s graduate programme in 2014 and following its completion was appointed manager of the group’s tillage business in the southeast.
The award, sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, is an all-expenses paid trip to this month’s “Disease Management in Wheat” course, run by the NIAB (National Institute of Agricultural Botany) in Cambridge.
EU new pesticide advisers are required under EU directive to complete the diploma course, co-ordinated at the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science by Dr Tom McCabe.
