HTA Rolls Out New Regional Projects
By Appleby, Matthew
The HTA is working on five projects with South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) to benefit growers in the South East. The projects, funded by the agency, mark a new era in working with regional development agencies, said HTA business development director Tim Briercliffe.
“I think this is important because funding from Government is distributed through the regions and less from central Government for R&D and business improvement. There have been some good examples in horticulture of businesses tapping into regional funding, but we’ve not used it in the main as well as we could have.”
Former RHS director-general Andrew Colquhoun chaired the SEEDA working group, which was formed to set up the projects, and praised it for taking the lead to help horticulture.
SEEDA rural affairs director Valerie Carter said: “SEEDA sees horticulture as an important sector in the South East.”
Briercliffe said the projects would last one year, but to implement them, growers may look to the Rural Development Plan for England when money becomes available in 2008.
The five projects are:
* A collaboration run by English Food & Farming Partnership to investigate the development of closer working between nurseries in the South East on sales and marketing.
* A transport and logistics collaboration, which will look at setting up similar projects to the Midland Regional Growers transport hub to help growers reduce transport costs. The Freight Transport Association will conduct a project to assess the feasibility of a similar shared transport hub in the South East.
* A nursery carbon calculator: White Young Green Environmental (WYGE) will develop a methodology for nurseries to calculate their carbon footprint, taking into account the positive contribution that plants make to carbon absorption. The HTA will be looking for volunteer nurseries in the South East to get involved.
* Reducing waste on nurseries; WYGE will also be looking for nurseries that want to participate in this. It will carry out detailed assessments of waste streams within nurseries and identify ways to reduce this waste and source local recycling options.
* Water audits – up to 20 nurseries in the South East will be able to benefit from a free water audit, delivered on site by ADAS consultants, with a follow-up report outlining detailed recommendations.
Collaboration: Briercliffe (left) and Colquhoun praised the SEEDA- funded projects
Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Oct 4, 2007
(c) 2007 Horticulture Week. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.