A new competition is offering prizes of between £5,000 and £20,000 to support British agriculture in achieving its ambition to be net zero.
The Journey to Net Zero competition has been launched by the School of Sustainable Food and Farming (SSFF), based at Harper Adams University.
With a total prize fund of £50,000, it will award cash prizes of between £5,000 and £20,000 to fund scalable systems or processes which will help farmers to manage their businesses in a sustainable way.
The winners will be announced at the end of this year and their progress will then be tracked and publicised by Farmers Guardian throughout 2023 to spread their learning across the industry.
In the UK, figures show that agricultural production is currently responsible for 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.
The School of Sustainable Food and Farming, launched last year, aims to help the industry become greener, as it is the first school of its type in the UK with courses covering livestock, soil health and biodiversity.
Announcing the competition, Prof Michael Lee, vice-chancellor of Harper Adams said: “We are working with some of the UK’s brightest and most innovative farmers and we really look forward to expanding this network through the competition.
"We realise that the greatest take up of technology and interventions is through seeing these implemented on real farms, hence the excitement around this competition.”
The NFU added: "As a founding partner of the SSFF, the NFU is committed to the vision to educate, inspire and empower current and future farmers to achieve net zero within a sustainable farming and food system.
"This competition provides an ideal opportunity to promote that vision, encouraging farmer-led innovation for sustainable farming."
Those interested in taking part in the Journey to Net Zero competition can do so online.
