The University of Reading has completed a £16 million purchase of land at Tanners Farm, Farley, with the aim of transforming the future of food and farming through its research.
The 635ac site includes pasture, arable land and woodland, and is around five miles south of the University of Reading’s Whiteknights campus, and close to the university’s existing farming facilities at Hall Farm, near Arborfield.
The purchase of Tanners Farm, and the adoption of the Agrifood Futures Strategy, aim to extend the university’s farming resources.
With the possibility of an updated Local Plan for Wokingham allocating parts of Hall Farm for a new garden village, the additional farmland will ensure there is ample space to continue the university’s research in a location that is still close to the its other facilities, the University of Reading said.
Vice-chancellor of the University of Reading, Prof, Robert Van de Noort, said: “The study of food and farming has been at the heart of the university’s work for more than a century. This new strategy will secure the future of agriculture at Reading for the next century to come.
“Our mission is to develop new methods and partnerships that will transform the way healthy, sustainable food is produced in Britain.
“This is another important step to raise Reading’s position among the world’s best for agricultural research.”
In time, Van de Noort said this strategy and additional farmland will give the university’s researchers the ability to find answers to critical questions of food security and sustainability.
“It will provide our students with hands-on experience as they train to become our future food growers and the stewards of the countryside.”
The funds for the purchase come from the university’s long-term capital investment funds. The university’s overall investment asset capital will remain broadly unchanged, it said.
Agrifood Futures Strategy
The University of Reading said the Agrifood Futures Strategy looks to position Reading to address some of the most important and complex challenges facing the global food system of 2050.
It aims to align the university’s research with a vision for everyone globally to be able to consume a sufficient, healthy, sustainable and affordable diet that leaves the lightest possible footprint on the planet.
The strategy identifies three interlinked priority research areas, focusing on transformation to a resilient and fair food system; environmentally friendly farming systems; and developing healthy and sustainable foods.
Research carried out on Reading’s farms has included:
- Innovative studies to cut greenhouse gas emissions from milk and dairy production;
- Work on techniques to promote the health and welfare of farmed livestock;
- Measuring ways to boost populations of bees and insect pollinators;
- The development of new vaccines to counter bovine TB;
- Efforts to support cocoa farmers facing climate change and plant diseases.
Boosting biodiversity
Tanners Farm has been carefully managed, with schemes to encourage wildlife and protect the countryside.
The University of Reading will initially lease the land to its existing users, continuing to support biodiversity schemes.
Head of the University of Reading’s school of agriculture, policy and development, Prof Simon Mortimer, said: “This is an exciting development for the university’s ambitions to invest in the future of food and farming research and education.
“The university’s purchase of Tanners Farm will give us the opportunity to research and demonstrate solutions to some of the most pressing problems facing Britain and the world: how to keep feeding a growing population from finite resources, despite a changing climate, while reducing the impact of farming on the environment.”
