Welsh farmers were urged today to take advantage of advances in technology and research to maximise output whilst controlling production costs during the Farmers’ Union of Wales autumn conference at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
Opening the conference FUW president Emyr Jones said: “Significant inroads have been made in ‘producing more from less’ but margins remain tight and we farmers must continue to work towards maximising outputs whilst controlling production costs.
“Technological advances in agriculture are not the result of adopting a one-tool technique but, instead, represent numerous different types of techniques to provide a package of technologies to suit different farm types and different kinds of stock.
“Over the past 20 years, agricultural productivity has advanced at a greater rate than ever before. However, the ever-increasing pressure to reduce production costs and the rising global demand for food means that enhancing agricultural productivity remains a key challenge for the farming sector.
“Whilst adverse weather conditions and other factors, such as disease outbreaks, will have a short-term impact on productivity, it will be the longer-term advances and developments in agri-technologies that will have an impact on the growth, productivity and success of the sector as a whole.
“We are pleased to have such excellent examples of how the industry is moving forward through technology and research here today,” added Mr Jones.