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Macaulay Scientist provides evidence to House of Lords

11 March 2009

Macaulay Land Use Research Institute soil scientist, Willie Towers, acted as the technical expert to David Barnes of the Scottish Government at a House of Lords inquiry into the EU Less Favoured Area LFA scheme.

Willie briefed David Barnes on the issue and the implications before the session as well as answering questions during the session.

The EU proposes to delimit LFAs on the basis of a standard set of common biophysical criteria to identify areas with natural handicaps. The criteria include climate, soil and topography and by testing these suggested criteria, the Institute has found that some do not adequately represent Scottish conditions. Willie outlined these concerns to the Environment and Agriculture committee and how these criteria were being actively debated with the JRC, the research support arm of the European Commission.

This is the first time that a scientist from the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute has been invited to provide technical evidence to the House of Lords. Lord Livsey of Talgarth commented that "It is a privilege to have somebody from the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute here today", an indication of the esteem in which the Institute’s research is held.

The audio can be heard at http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=3663.

Willie's evidence can be heard at 36 minutes and again near the end of the transcript.

For more information on other work the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute has carried out with regard to LFA, making use of the Institute’s Land Capability for Agriculture (LCA) classification, please look at:

• http://www.macaulay.ac.uk/ruralsustainability/LFAreport.pdf
• http://www.macaulay.ac.uk/LADSS/papers/CR-37-LCA-paper-2008-published.pdf

 

 

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