This session will focus on resilience in the sector in the face of current and future pests and disease. The panel will begin by discussing crop resilence: the prominent plant health challenges facing growers, current and soon to be available methods of control, and the longer-term opportunities presented by technologies such as gene editing.
The conversation will then look at the challenges of tomorrow: what might they be, how European colleagues are dealing with them, and what the UK can learn from their experience.
Meet the panel
Dr James Northen
Head of NFU Sugar
He is a former director at the Institute of Grocery Distribution and adviser to Arla Foods and the Food Ethics Council.
He works closely with the NFU Sugar board to shape the organisation's policy and plays a crucial role in price negotiations.
Kit Papworth | Norfolk
NFU Sugar Board chair | BBRO Executive Board | Sustainability
Kit has specialised in combinable crops and sugar beet. He is on the BASIS professional register and is responsible for the farm’s agronomy and crop recording, health and safety and HR. LF Papworth Ltd won the Norfolk Champion Farms competition for 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2014.
Kit was a board member of Anglia Farmers for 12 years and was chair from 2011 to 2014, retiring from the board to chair the subsidiary AF Logic until its sale in 2017. He joined the NFU Sugar Board in 2020 with specific responsibilities for Red Tractor. Kit stepped down from his sugar board Red Tractor representation when he took up the role of Red Tractor Crops and Sugar Chair in September 2022.
Kit has been on the council of the Aylsham Show for many years, managing the food theatre. He is chair of Pensthorpe Conservation Trust. He has three children and lives with his partner Caroline.
Professor Mark Stevens
Head of Scientific Endeavour, BBRO (British Beet Research Organisation)
Whilst there he was group leader of the crop protection group and became head of site. Mark is an applied biologist by training and more specifically a plant pathologist (particularly viruses), and has investigated the impact, control and epidemiology of pests and diseases including rhizomania and virus yellows.
Previously, he managed a research portfolio that includes funding from competitive research grants awarded by BBRO, AHDB (Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board) and Innovate UK as well as grants from the agrochemical sector, seed companies and agricultural trust funds.
Mark continues to work closely with the sugar beet industry via his role within the BBRO to ensure appropriate R&D (research and development) to maximise the future of the UK sugar beet industry.
He was awarded an honorary professorship from the University of Nottingham in 2019 and Mark is currently the president of the IIRB (International Institute of Sugar Beet Research).
Vincent Laudinat
General Manager, ITB (Institut Technique de la Betterave)
After working for 25 years on crop productions and agricultural developments, both in Europe and further afield (Vietnam, Cuba, and Africa), he became general manager of ITB in 2014 – the French Technical Agricultural Institute specialising in sugar beet production.
He is also currently Vice-president of the International Institute of Sugar Beet Research.