Potato Review

8 POTATO REVIEW SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER2021 NEWS Funding up for grabs GROWERS have an opportunity to pitch for a grant to help their businesses next month. Minister for Rural A airs Lesley Gri ths has announced that a new expression of interest window for the Farm Business Grant will open on September 1st. A budget of £2m will be available for farmers to invest in new technology and equipment to improve their technical, financial and environmental performance. The expression of interest window will run until October 1st and successful applicants will have four months to purchase and claim for the items supported. The budget allocated to this round of the Farm Business Grant comes from funds remaining within the Rural Development Programme. Newspecialist police unit will target agriculturalmachinery theft A NEW specialist police unit has been set up to target theft of agricultural and construction plant machinery. The dedicated Agricultural and Construction Equipment (ACE) specialist police unit will be managed and operated within Opal, which is the national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime (SOAC) across the UK. O cers from ACE will work to develop, collate and co-ordinate intelligence from a variety of sources to identify and disrupt organised criminality and target those involved in these thefts, also identify any current and emerging crime trends and threats. The reason ACE was established on the back of Opal is because the unit already has a foothold nationally and intelligence can be shared between the forces. The ACE national intelligence hub team will work closely with the industry. Detective Inspector Ernie Locke, Opal National Intelligence Unit, Serious and Organised Acquisitive Crime said ACE benefits from a dedicated intelligence team. “By working smarter and in partnership with law enforcement agencies, government agencies, business/industry and academia it will deliver a whole system approach in tackling agriculture and construction equipment theft. It is anticipated that ACE team will continue to grow as their contribution is recognised in this area of criminality,” he said. Deputy Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, NPCC lead for Serious Organised Acquisitive Crime added that they were “really grateful” for the strong support of partners such as the CEA, the AEA (Agricultural Engineers Association) and the insurance industry. Update to online storage training facility THE online training for the Restrain ethylene application system and equipment has been updated. Restrain has now created a new video “What to do with sprouts?” which explains how sprout development is reduced by the use of ethylene and how to recognise these signs with three easy signals. The video is incorporated in module 4 of the training. BASIS set to leadELM scheme training Independent awarding body, BASIS, has instigated a consultation with Defra and other industry stakeholders, to deliver training for advisers in light of the proposed Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme. BASIS CEO, Stephen Jacob, said the training will be geared towards agronomists, land managers and other professionals who want to advise farmers on the Government’s new payment scheme. For more information, please visit: www.basis-reg.co.uk . SUSTAINABILITY RECOGNITION TRINITY AgTech and Harper Adams University’s School of Sustainable Food and Farming are introducing two new £5,000 innovation prizes for collaborative ventures by growers. The Farming Innovation Pioneers Awards are delivered through Harper Adams’ School of Sustainable Food and Farming (SSFF) and sponsored by Trinity AgTech’s Pioneers program. They will be made to farmers who work with cross-industry stakeholders to spearhead transformational sustainability projects. The awards are open for written applications until May 1st, 2022 and a panel of expert judges will review and select winners by June 1st, 2022. For more information, visit trinityagtech.com .