LJM Associates Ltd

  Building a more coherent approach to CPD in the land-based sector  This short paper which I have co-written reviews current approaches to continuous professional development (CPD) across the land-based sector, focusing on how CPD is linked to agri-food market requirements and public agricultural payments across the UK and Ireland. It finds that, while CPD is already embedded in many parts of the sector – through regulation, professional standards and conditional funding – the overall system is inconsistently applied and often difficult to navigate. Do check it out.

  Great to see our co-authored paper "Investigating robot acceptance in UK agriculture" published in the Journal of Rural Studies.  Key highlights:  1) Robot acceptance varies significantly by farming sector and job role.  2) Workers prefer robots assisting with tasks but reject robots making operational decisions.  3) Older individuals showed higher robot acceptance, reversing trends in other sectors.  4) Building familiarity is key to driving the adoption of agricultural robots.  Do check it out   

  In September I was invited to contribute to a webinar of Regenerative Agriculture for SCI. The webinar entitled 'Regenerative agriculture - what does it mean for farmers, policy-makers and you?' has now been published on You Tube - do check it out  https://youtu.be/rxf4ebzBUCw?si=-YsfcA0B2x3iLKTk   

  Incotec and Croda Agriculture have released a whitepaper on regenerative agriculture. The whitepaper has the title ‘Regenerative Agriculture: How to improve natural ecosystems and increase yields’. The report has been produced with input from top experts in the field. Contributors are Louise Manning, formerly Lincoln University, Sjoerd van der Ent, Koppert, Daniel Glas, Bayer, Gabriel Moura and Claudia Veiga Jardim, Syngenta, Kevin Ashford, UPL Corp, and James Hunt, Croda Agriculture.  There is no universally agreed definition, but most agree that regenerative agriculture should aim to improve soil health, increase biodiversity, minimise chemical use, improve soil water retention, and remove carbon from the atmosphere to store it in soil. The whitepaper offers a comprehensive exploration of a broad array of topics including what RegenAg is and why it matters; how the industry can deliver it; the science, innovations, and technologies driving RegenAg practices; as well as the...

Louise Manning has been invited to speak by the SCI on a webinar focused on regenerative agriculture on Wednesday 24th September at 4pm - to find out more details click on the link.