TSSG invited to participate in the Agri Food Strategy 2030

Pictured is Michael Creed, TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar 

It was noted at the event that the start-up culture in the agri-tech sector, albeit slow, is gaining momentum however more mechanisms need to be made available for farmers to develop and nurture an entrepreneurial eco-system within the sector. This is changing with the support of research centres, such as TSSG, who are leaders in multiple large scale agri-tech projects across Europe. Including DEMETER, a pan-European project with 60 partners including the World Farmers Organisation, TSSG is also the Irish/UK Lead for a €20 million Pan-European Agri-Food project, which hopes to connect the dots to unleash the innovation potential for digital transformation of the European Agri-Food sector. This project will see a further €6 million secured in research funding over the next 4 years, as well as an economic impact across Europe of over €30 million. Both projects have cascade funding opportunities, scheduled to open in 2020, on offer directly to farmers who are investing in agri-tech and interested in developing their idea further.

Launched earlier this year was the SFI Research Centre called VistaMilk, a €40m National Research Centre for Agri-Tech funded by both SFI and The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. This project sees TSSG partner with TEAGASC (national agricultural research and advisory service), Tyndall (Research in sensor manufacturing) and Insight (data analytics research centre).
The goal of the SFI Research Centre, VistaMilk is to investigate and build technologies to advance precision agriculture in the dairy sector. In particular, they focus on improving the condition and efficiencies in the areas of pasture management, animal health and wellbeing, and food production.
These are just three of many agri-tech projects research in TSSG are actively involved in. For more information on these and more projects visit www.tssg.org/projects.
For more information on the agri food strategy go to  https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/foodindustrydevelopmenttrademarkets/agri-foodandtheeconomy/agri-foodstrategyto2030/FoodStrategyConferenceProgramme301019.pdf
 
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