Sainsbury’s launches first farmer and grower scholarship

Sainsbury’s launches first farmer and grower scholarship

27 April 2015

Seven British farmers start the first Sainsbury’s farmers and growers scholarship programme today. In partnership with Imperial College London, the next six months offers them a unique opportunity to study, research and analyse soil health, whilst learning how soil management can be developed to enhance yield, quality and sustainability.

Delivered with Imperial College over the next 11 months the theme of the scholarshipis Soil Health and management and brings together farmers who work with potatoes and carrots through to leeks and wheat from farms across the UK. It is a new programme to support farmers to progress what the future looks like for soil science and management on their farms and sits alongside the successfully introduced agricultural graduate scheme which has supported seven people through the scheme and Sainsbury’s Agriculture and Horticulture Apprentice programme. This programme started in September 2014, with placements within horticulture, as the first retailer-led national apprenticeship scheme within agriculture and horticulture we are currently making a final call for entrants to the livestock and poultry programme which will start later this year. 

Starting on Monday 27th April, the first week of the programme is a foundation for the scholarshipand includes seminars, lectures, visits and discussions in order to introduce and set the scene of the scholarship.  

The scholarship farmers will use this suite of activities to help formulate what challenges (around the theme of soil science, health and management) that they would like to work on for the remainder of the programme.  

The remainder of the year will include: 

  • Site visits, which will be arranged to locations that will be tailored to the interests and study topics of the scholarship farmers
  • A Creativity event, hosted at Imperial College brings together the Scholarship farmers, key academics, and industrial partners to brainstorm around the projects that the scholarship farmers will develop throughout the remainder of the year. We anticipate that this will lead to exciting new partnerships. 

Judith Batchelar, Director of Sainsbury’s Brand, said:"We’re delighted to launch our Scholarship for farmers and growers which is a first of its kind for a retailer. It’s exciting that some of the country’s best scientists, practitioners and researchers are coming together to share their knowledge and expertise with some of the brightest farmers and growers in our supply chain.” 

The next six months is a unique opportunity for the group, we hope their work leaves a lasting legacy throughout the whole supply chain, from our farmers through to customers for years to come.” 

A key part of Imperial College’s involvement is the support of Laura Barter and RudigerWoscholski who are the directors of AGRI-net, the Agri-science Chemical Biology Network. 

Dr Laura Barter, Research Fellowat Imperial College adds: “I am looking forward to seeing how, through multi-disciplinary engagement, some of the challenges in soil health and management faced by the scholarship farmers today, can be addressed with innovative tools, technologies and methods being developed by researchers. Discussions between the scholarship farmers, academics and industrial partners are likely to stimulate the genesis of wholly new ideas, which will lead to the development of next generation solutions in the field.”