Farm-PEP

The ideas behind Farm-PEP came together in ~2018, drawing from the developments of Agronomics, the YENs, AHDB's Monitor Farm programme and the idea of a 'What Works' Centre for Agriculture. 

Originally we submitted a large collaborative proposal to the Government's Industry Strategy Challenge Fund Wave 3 to support Knowledge Generation and Knowledge Exchange in agriculture with a Performance Enhancement Programme. We argued that whilst the Transforming Food Production (TFP) programme was on-going, this focussed on technology rather than knowledge. Supporting the open creation and sharing of knowledge for the benefit of the industry can be difficult to fit with the typical Innovate UK approach.  Whilst we were unsuccessful in this bid, and in a subsequent large TFP proposal, we have refined our ideas and in 2021 were successful with two Innovate UK projects to develop Farm-PEP, the first has developed this Platform for knowledge exchange, the second is supporting and developing Partnerships to support on farm research through data sharing and on-farm experimentation.

 

Farm PEP aims to connect knowledge exchange in agriculture. It is a work in progress and we are co-designing the project openly, in an iterative process, involving as many stakeholders as possible in order to develop a vibrant online knowledge-sharing community.

Give us your feedback and help co-design Farmpep.net here

Related Organisations

Connected Content

ADAS

ADAS provides ideas, specialist knowledge and solutions to secure our food and enhance the environment. We understand food production and the challenges and opportunities faced by organisations operating in the natural environment

NCSPulse PEP
Innovative Farmers

Innovative Farmers was established in 2012 by the Soil Association with the aim of bringing scientific rigour to on-farm trials co-designed by farmers and researchers. With a focus on sustainability and resilience, groups come together on discrete topics and on-farm trials addressing the topics that matter to them.

Knowledge

Farm-PEP aims to bring together all the sources of useful knowledge for Agriculture, whether from academic science, applied research projects, industry trials, farmers own trials or simple on-farm experience. Listed below are useful websites, organisations and websites that we know of.  Add any we've missed in the comments box or by adding as new content, or better still, as a new Group.  

YEN

The Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) was launched in 2012 to support and energise on-farm learning-by-sharing and thus to enhance farming progress.

DEFRA

The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs.

FLIN Farmer-led Innovation Network

The Farmer-Led Innovation Network (FLIN) are UK based organisations driving farmer-led innovation - working together to power up and increase the impact of farmer led innovation initiatives.

AHDB

We deliver transformational projects to drive productivity and boost farming and supply chain businesses. We want the industry to thrive in a rapidly changing world and continue to produce high quality food, maintain our beautiful landscape and leave a legacy for generations to come. 

FarmPEP.net Co-design

Share your views on how we can improve Farmpep.net

FarmPEP.net project

The initial Farm-PEP project funded under the Innovate UK competition 'UKRI Ideas to address Covid-19'.  ADAS led consortium to assess the impact of Covid-19 on knowledge exchange in agriculture, and to develop the Farm-PEP web solution at www.farmpep.net. The initial Farm-PEP project began in January 2021 and ran to February 2022.

Agri-TechE

Agri-TechE is a business focused member organisation, supporting the growth of a world-leading network of innovative farmers, producers, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs who share a vision of increasing the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture.

Agronomics

Agronomics is the science of understanding the variation in the cropped environment, identifying the management practices and system designs that work. It uses a farm centric approach of shared farm data and on-farm experimentation.

On Farm Experimentation

On Farm Experimentation (OFE) is increasingly being recognised as having transformative power in improving performance in agricultural systems across the world.

AICC

AICC member agronomists are now the preferred source of advice on over 2.2 million hectares, which is almost half of the UK’s arable land, and the demand for it is stronger than ever

Crop Nutrition Club

Farmers, advisors and researchers working together to understand and improve crop nutrition on-farm

FarmPEP: a platform to support farm-centric knowledge generation and knowledge exchange - IFS Poster abstract

Poster paper given at IFS 2022 by Daniel Kindred, Roger Sylvester-Bradley, Pete Berry and colleagues. Conventional routes to generating knowledge of ‘what works’ in agriculture have relied on (i) farmers developing their experiences and passing these on locally, and (ii) researchers conducting small plot experiments on a limited number of sites, analysing data and drawing conclusions in a more generic top-down fashion. The advent of (i) the internet enabling ideas and data to be shared widely and (ii) precision farming technologies enabling comparisons or trials by farms, provides the opportunity to interconnect the top-down approach with a more robust farm-centric bottom-up approach.

On-farm trials: five principles for success

ADAS have produced a new guide with our five top tips for successful on-farm trials. We'd love you to give it a try and to hear about what products or approaches you're testing on farm - by sharing the results of trials, we can learn more together.

Pulse PEP
Farm Trials Guide

  Guide to conducting successful Farm Trials. Developed by ADAS from Agronomics pr

YEN Nutrition

YEN Nutrition brings together those wanting to achieve more precise crop nutrition.  High fertiliser prices now make this vital.  Assuming that 'crops know best' engagement in YEN Nutrition starts by benchmarking grain nutrients to show those that were limiting (or excessive) for each crop.

Farm-PEP FIP Partnerships

The development of Farm-PEP Performance Enhancement Partnerships to support on-farm knowledge generation through shared ideas, data and experimentation. Funded as part of Farming Innovation Pathways programme from Defra and Innovate UK Transforming Food Production.

CCRI - Countryside & Community Research Institute

An internationally excellent Research Institute” (REF, 2021). Shaping rural development policy and practice in the UK, Europe and further afield.

Knowledge Exchange

Knowledge Exchange in Agriculture in the UK is diverse, with many organisations involved. That is part of the reason for creating Farm-PEP, to help provide connections to what many percieve as a fragmented landscape.

The Farming Forum

TFF is the leading Farming discussion site in the UK.

BGS British Geological Survey

We are a world-leading independent research organisation providing objective, expert geoscientific data, information and knowledge.

Farmer led innovation

Many of the most telling innovations that make a difference on-farm come from farmers themselves, or from close collaboration between farmers, advisors, industry and researchers

Map of Ag

Farm-PEP Vision

Our vision for Farm-PEP was summarised at a conference addressing "On-Farm Experimentation" (at M

Video describing Farm-PEP

Video from the On Farm Experimentation conference (OFE21) in Montpellier in October 2021

Innovate UK

NCSPulse PEP
On-Farm Research 101 event

How do you conduct and manage robust research and development at scale on your farm? What are the best methods for data collection and analysis? What are the best approaches to collaborative projects with researchers? Join us on April 28th as we explore the scientific approaches to on-farm trials and how to work more effectively with researchers.

Dynamic Benchmarking

Benchmarking is at the core of the YENs and the FarmPEP approach

Original Farm-PEP submission to ISCF 2018 (unsuccessful)

Our initial ideas and proposal for the Farm-PEP concept from 2018, submitted to ISCF but failed.