Morrisons has teamed up on a farmer skills initiative which it hopes will help farmers hit their net zero targets and plug the skills gap in agriculture.
The initiative is a collaboration with the professional body The Institute for Agriculture & Horticulture (TIAH).
The initiative will see the supermarket trial TIAH’s digital platform, which is part-funded by Defra, to help plug the skills gaps in agriculture.
Alongside the School of Sustainable Food & Farming at Harper Adams University, TIAH has developed four modules, offering farmers key information, with topics including measuring and improving growth, the use of efficient forage, calving best practices, and common beef disease.
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The initiative comes two years after Morrisons launched the School of Sustainable Food & Farming in 2021, alongside partners Harper Adams University, National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and McDonald’s, providing courses on regenerative agriculture methods to transition the nationwide farming system into a sustainable and carbon-neutral practice.
It also builds on Morrisons’ aim to become the first UK supermarket to be supplied by net zero farms by 2030.
The supermarket giant told the publication that the school has “helped provide the farmers with a deeper understanding of the journey their produce goes on from their farms to supermarket shelves”.
It comes as Morrisons partnered with environmental technology company Sea Forest last month to fast-track the process of feeding its cattle seaweed-based livestock feed in a bid to help reduce carbon production from beef products.
Sea Forest will now work with the supermarket’s manufacturing arm, Myton Food Groups, to supply methane-abating livestock feed, to ramp up its introduction of lower-carbon beef products.
