Teagasc is putting its extensive knowledge base at the disposal of professionals and businesses who work with the agri-food sector through the establishment of an initiative known as Teagasc Connected.
"Agriculture is becoming a far more knowledge-intensive activity," explains programme manager Mark Gibson. "The processes involved are becoming very technical and farmers and the people working with them need to be updated on a regular basis. Teagasc Connected provides training and networking opportunities to facilitate that."
This is seen as central to supporting a more knowledge-intensive agri-food sector. “One of the key recommendations the Food Wise 2025 strategy is the need to invest in human capital within the agri-food sector,” Gibson continues. “Teagasc has identified the need for greater engagement with professionals and corporates who provide services to the agri-food sector through education, skills development and knowledge exchange.”
The overall aim of Teagasc Connected is to provide a range of education, training and other development programmes to the non-farming members of the agricultural knowledge innovation system. Those members include animal health professionals, veterinary services, agricultural consultants, agri-food businesses, accountants, solicitors, co-operatives, local authorities, banks, financial service providers, and insurance companies.
“We are taking a farmer-centric approach,” says Gibson. “We are looking at all the different players involved in the agricultural ecosystem. It is really important that they are all on the same page when it comes to the issues facing the sector, particularly the grand challenges like climate change, water quality, and farm safety.”
He points to an example of where there could be differences of opinion when it comes to advice given to farmers. “As things stand you could have a farm adviser telling a farmer to do one thing and a sales rep giving conflicting information. Connected is aimed at making sure this doesn’t happen by providing education to people who offer advice to farmers.”
This has particular applications for areas like water quality. “If a farmer gets a nutrient plan from a farm adviser and then goes into a merchant to order fertiliser, it’s important for the merchant to be able to be able to understand that plan, interpret it properly, and provide the right type and amount of fertiliser. If this isn’t the case, you can have excess fertiliser getting into watercourses.”
This extends to agricultural contractors as well. “They have to understand the importance of sticking to the plan and know how to calibrate their spreaders and so on.”
The banks are also engaging with the programme. “The banks are now developing specific agri-lending products and they need to understand farm businesses,” Gibson points out. “We have just delivered a five-day training course for staff in one of the banks. We gave them the background and knowledge to understand things like the flows of cash on a farm.”
The accountancy profession is an important target for the programme. “If there are changes coming down the track in certain support or other schemes, accountants can see the value in learning about those to be able to provide a better service to their farming clients. We are dealing with a lot of professionals, such as vets and accountants, who might be sole traders and don’t have the resources of a large organisation behind them to be able to get updates on the latest developments. Teagasc Connected can provide that to them.”
While a certain amount of the education and knowledge-sharing on offer is relatively basic, much of it is quite advanced. “We do a lot of work with agricultural specialists in banks on the economics and key performance indicators of dairy farm performance,” he says. “We might like at technologies like robotic milking and examine at what point do they become viable and make financial sense – is it two cows or 200?”
And it’s not just about the banks or local accountants being able to find new clients for their services. “These stakeholders are all key influencer in the whole agri-food sector and it is vitally important that they understand it properly. If a farmer goes into a bank looking for a loan to buy a new slurry spreader, the response might be advise to rent one or use a contractor. But the farmer might be in an area which is poorly served by contractors or have particular land issues, which means it makes sense to own rather than rent. If the bank doesn’t understand these factors it won’t be able to give farmers what they need.”
Teagasc Connected membership currently stands at 600 and the aim is to increase this to between 4,000 and 5,000 over the next few years. “It’s an ambitious target but we know they are out there,” says Gibson. “It’s a very good value programme. It costs just €195 a year with a 50 per cent discount for the first year, and for that members get access to a range of high-value networking events and discounted training from Teagasc. Over the years, different industry groups have come to us saying that Teagasc has 43,000 farmer clients and they want a way of connecting to them. Teagasc Connected offers that to them. It is also an excellent way to transfer knowledge and gain an understanding of the agri-food ecosystem.”