Call on MPs to back horticultural R&D

The EDM, which draws attention to 20 years of cuts in resources and funding for R&D in production horticulture, highlights deep concerns in our industry that the decline in research capacity will mean the UK is "unable to address the scientific challenges raised by January's stringent pesticides legislation".

Submitted by All-Party Parliamentary Gardening & Horticulture Group chairman Ann Cryer, the EDM has so far been signed by 33 MPs. But we need more to get the message across to Defra that there is widespread support for government match-funding of the Horticultural Development Company levy, as a first step towards securing the UK horticulture R&D base to carry out critical crop-protection replacement work.

We are now six months closer to the consequence of January's vote by the European Parliament in favour of tough new pesticides legislation: a ban on many crop-protection products growers depend on for viable production. There is no time to lose.

Persuading your MP to sign the EDM will get across the depth of parliamentary support for the call to key Defra figures currently being lobbied by bodies across the industry including the HTA, NFU and National Horticultural Forum.

But it will also help bring the issue to the attention of others, such as the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Committee currently considering whether to pursue an inquiry that includes R&D funding (and has been called on by the Save Our Science campaign to make the horticultural research crisis a priority). Meanwhile, all the main political parties are preparing their manifestos in the run-up to the next election. Save Our Science will be seeking commitments from each to fund horticultural R&D.

Associations from across production horticulture have backed the campaign with excellent messages of support outlining why R&D matters so much to this industry. These can be seen at www.HorticultureWeek.co.uk/sossupport.

Now let's get those messages into the hands of MPs.