Morrisons has announced a collaboration with The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH) to support farmers reach net zero.
It came at the Great Yorkshire Show, and will see the retailer trialling TIAH’s digital platform, part-funded by DEFRA, to help address the agricultural skills gap.
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TIAH, together with the School of Sustainable Food & Farming at Harper Adams University, has developed four modules that offer farmers an approach to learning key information.
The topics will cover:
- Calving best practice
- Common beef disease
- Measuring and improving growth
- Efficient forage
The news comes after Morrisons, McDonald’s and the NFU founded the School of Sustainable Food & Farming at Harper Adams University in 2022 to support sustainable food production.
The School has already seen success, working with more than 100 farmers at Morrisons stores, where events have encouraged networking and engagement.
An emphasis was also put on a deeper understanding of the journey produce goes on, and a further calendar of events is planned for the upcoming months.
Sophie Throup, Technical and Sustainability Director at Myton Food Group for Morrisons, said: “Progress towards net zero in agriculture requires constant innovation, new thinking and challenging the accepted practices. We’re proud to be the first retailer to partner with TIAH to support our livestock farmers in reducing their environmental impact.
“We are looking forward to testing and trialling new practices with 20 of our farmers to help us develop the next phase of our march towards net zero by 2030. Better information leads to better practices and this new partnership will help deliver that.”
Stephen Jacob, chief executive of TIAH also commented, saying: “We are pleased to be working with Morrisons to develop this unique programme to support livestock farmers with their sustainability goals.
“We will work to ensure this trial will enable us to learn about the way in which farmers want to access and action learning for impact on their farms.”
This work forms part of Morrisons aim to only be supplied by net zero British farms by 2030, five years ahead of the market.
