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Q&A with Dr Jonathan Scurlock, NFU

Ahead of UK AD & Biogas 2013 (3-4 July, NEC Birmingham), we asked conference speaker Dr Jonathan Scurlock, National Farmers Union (NFU) about what he is working on and what he is trying to achieve in the next three years:

What are you working on at the moment that you’re most excited about?

Building upon recent engagement with Defra and DECC officials, and the previous widely shared aspiration for 1000 AD plants on farms by 2020, the NFU is pleased to be helping an AD industry group to develop a more detailed level of ambition for on-farm AD, based upon likely uptake in each farming sector (dairy, pigs, poultry, hort/veg, arable, etc.).

Realistically, what are the top three things you want to achieve in the next two years?

From around 50 on-farm digesters today out of a total UK population of 100 or more, we look forward to seeing AD rolled out on hundreds of farms over the next 2-3 years, making significant progress towards the 2020 goal of 1000 plants.

If you were to become the Energy Secretary/Environment Secretary what would you change and why?

Deployment of AD on farms at smaller scale urgently requires more carefully directed support from both the Feed-In Tariffs and the Renewable Heat Incentive schemes, and “room to grow” in the planning and permitting regimes.

Dr Jonathan Scurlock will be speaking about ‘Producing more food, fuel and fibre: the challenge of sustainable intensification’ on 3 July at 3.55pm in the free to attend conference at UK AD & Biogas 2013.

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