Soil and water management
Presentations on monitoring soil condition and using water more efficiently on mixed farms.
Open Innovation Workshop a success in Shandong
The workshop brought UK and Chinese researchers, growers and businesses together to test shared approaches to sustainable crop production.
What the workshop covered
The programme was organised around problems that both countries face and where different methods could be compared directly.
Crop resilience
Discussion of breeding and field trial methods that help crops cope with changing weather.
Digital tools for growers
Review of sensing and data tools, with attention to how they are adopted by smaller farms.
Routes to collaboration
Open discussion of funding, data sharing and the practical steps needed to start a joint project.
Shared problems, shared methods
The workshop was designed as an exchange rather than a set of lectures. Speakers from each side described the methods they use, and participants were invited to say where those methods would or would not work in their own region. This made it possible to identify approaches that could be tested jointly.
Session by session
Speakers set out the agricultural priorities in each country and explained why an open approach to innovation was needed.
Participants discussed trial results and compared how observations were recorded and interpreted in different conditions.
Small groups drafted outlines for possible joint projects, identifying the questions, partners and resources each would need.
Conversation in the field
Part of the day was spent outdoors. Visitors walked the trial plots, asked growers about their practice and compared notes on what they saw. Several participants said the time on site gave them a clearer picture of the constraints than any slide could.
Next steps
Follow-up
Summary shared
A written record of the discussions is shared with everyone who attended the workshop.
Review
Proposals assessed
Outline project ideas are reviewed with the partners who would lead or contribute to them.
Development
Projects prepared
Promising ideas move into fuller planning, including agreement on roles and shared data.
Looking ahead
The workshop showed that the questions facing UK and Chinese agriculture overlap more than is often assumed. The network intends to keep this exchange going through further workshops, visits and joint projects.
The workshop was organised as part of the network's work on UK-China agricultural partnerships, with the aim of turning shared interest into practical collaboration.