Agriculture and Climate Change Stakeholder meeting

7 October 2011, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

As part of the SG Research Strategy 2006-2011, Main Research Providers (MRPs) undertook a wide range of policy relevant research. Climate Change, next to Biodiversity and Sustainability, was one of the cross-cutting themes across the four Programmes of the Strategy.

The focus of this workshop is to present findings of agriculture and climate change research in order to facilitate knowledge exchange and to foster future liaison between scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders.

Stewart Stevenson, Minister for Environment and Climate Change will give the opening address to delegates from 9:30am – 10am.

The morning session will be chaired by David Barnes, Deputy Director of the Agriculture & Rural Development Division at the Scottish Government and the afternoon session by Dr Gordon Machray, Head of Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA).

The emphasis of the event will be on the presentation and discussion of policy relevant research outputs under the following themes:

• Monitoring Change 
• Mitigating the Impact 
• Adapting to Change

The workshop will be a unique opportunity for science-policy interaction, an essential pre-requisite to maximising opportunities arising from the SG funded Programme of Research 2011-2016.

The event will take place on Friday 7 October at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and will run from approximately 09.00-16.00. Lunch is included.

Registration is required. Please contact Jane.Lund@hutton.ac.uk, Tel 01224 395072.

Programme

Chair: Mr David Barnes, Deputy Director, Agriculture & Rural Development Division Scottish Government

09:00 – 09:30  Registration

09:30 – 10:00  Opening by Stewart Stevenson, MSP, Minister for Environment & Climate Change

10:00 – 10.30  Professor Colin Campbell, The James Hutton Institute “Soils and ecosystem services in relation to climate change and agriculture”

10:30 – 10.55  Dr Iain Brown/Mr Willie Towers, The James Hutton Institute “Changes in land capability for agriculture, and implications for water and energy”
 
11:00 – 11:30  Coffee and posters

11:30 – 11:50  Dr Adrian Newton, The James Hutton Institute, “Climate change, plant disease and food security: an overview”

11:50 – 12:15  Dr Bob Rees, Scottish Agricultural College “Measurement and modelling of greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural systems”
  
12:15 – 12:45  Ms Vera Eory, Scottish Agricultural College “Cost effectiveness assessment of Scottish Climate Policies to 2027”
   
12:45 – 13:00  Professor Robin Matthews, The James Hutton Institute, “"Greenhouse gas abatement potential of biomass crops in Scotland under various management options"

13:00 – 14:00  Lunch and posters

Chair:  Dr Gordon Machray, SASA

14:00 – 14:20  Professor John Wallace, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen “Ruminal methane production: microbes and mitigation”

14:20 – 14:40  Dr Tony Waterhouse, Scottish Agricultural College “Mitigation of methane of beef and sheep systems”

14:40 – 14:55  Mr Stephen Ross, Scottish Agricultural College: “Relative Carbon Efficiency of four divergent Dairy Production Systems”

14:55 – 15:15  Dr Philip Skuce, Moredun Research Institute. “Practical disease control in the face of a changing climate”

15:15 – 15:30  Dr Luiza Toma, Scottish Agricultural College “Climate Change implications of animal welfare and health”

15:30  Close and coffee

Published on 28 September 2011 in Climate, water and energy