New ADOPT funding round opens for farmer-led innovation
Farmers with an idea they would like to put to the test on farm have another opportunity to seek funding through Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, with the latest round of ADOPT funding now open.
Round 10 of the ADOPT full grant competition opened on 24 September, providing funding opportunities for farmer-led on-farm trials and experiments.
ADOPT, the Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies Fund, is designed to help farmers, growers and foresters test innovative ideas in real-world conditions, with projects addressing challenges or opportunities around productivity, resilience and sustainability.
BOFIN is a registered ADOPT Project Facilitator and can work with farmers from the early stages of an idea through to developing and delivering a project. BOFIN’s Head of Projects and ADOPT Facilitator Laura Beaumont encourages prospective applicants to start with the problem they want to solve.
“Start with a question that matters to your farming business, rather than trying to build a project around the funding,” she says. “What would you like to find out, how could you realistically test it on farm, and could the results help other farmers too?”
A strong ADOPT idea should address a genuine on-farm challenge or opportunity and have relevance beyond one individual business. Applicants should also consider who else may need to be involved.
For farmers interested in working with BOFIN, the process starts with an initial discussion with Laura to explore the idea, whether it fits the scope of ADOPT and what expertise or partners might be needed.
“You don’t need to have a fully developed project before getting in touch,” Laura adds. “An initial conversation can help us explore your idea, identify the support you might need and work out the next steps together.”
Where appropriate, the next step is to apply for an ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant. These grants provide £2,500 to engage an approved Project Facilitator, giving BOFIN dedicated time to work with the farmer to develop the initial idea into a well-designed project and prepare an application for a Full ADOPT Grant.
Full ADOPT projects must be led by an active farming business in England and involve at least one other farmer, grower or forester. A registered Project Facilitator must also form part of the project team. Previous rounds have supported projects with total costs of between £50,000 and £200,000.
Further ADOPT funding rounds are expected.
Got an idea you would like to test on farm? Get in touch with Laura Beaumont to discuss whether it could become an ADOPT project.
Agri-Tech Week 2026: Who drives agricultural innovation?
Agricultural innovation only succeeds if it works on farm. While new technologies continue to emerge, many struggle to achieve widespread adoption because they don’t fully reflect the realities of farming businesses. An upcoming webinar will explore agricultural innovation from the farmer’s perspective, asking what encourages farmers to engage with new technologies, what creates barriers to adoption, and how genuine collaboration leads to better outcomes.
Part of Agri-Tech Week, a unique programme of bespoke events curated by Agri-TechE and hosted by partners across its membership, this webinar will showcase the latest thinking in agricultural research and farming practice, while providing opportunities to gain new knowledge, strengthen networks and gather fresh insights.
Drawing on BOFIN’s experience of coordinating on-farm trials and farmer-led research across the UK, the session will feature farmer voices and practical examples of innovations tested and refined through collaboration. Speakers will share first-hand experiences of working with researchers and technology developers, highlighting what encourages farmers to engage with innovation and how early involvement strengthens product development and adoption.
The 90-minute webinar will combine short presentations, a panel discussion and audience Q&A, exploring how businesses can better involve farmers throughout the innovation process, the value of real-world testing, and why farmer feedback is essential to developing practical, relevant innovations that deliver lasting impact.
Farming’s commercial interests should follow Defra’s lead and financially support farmers who carry out research on their farms, says BOFIN founder Tom Allen-Stevens.
Speaking at a Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum seminar on the next steps for agricultural policy, Tom said Defra’s Farming Innovation Program had demonstrated what farmers can achieve when properly resourced to carry out research on their own farms.
“Farmers have never really been credited with providing good R&D on farm, but they can do it,” he said.
“No one knows farming businesses better than farmers do, or how to improve them. Give farmers the resources and they can deliver.”
Across five major Defra-funded projects involving BOFIN, almost 100 farmers have delivered around 400 on-farm trials, with more than £650,000 set to have been paid directly to participating farmers by the end of this year.
One example is the recently completed SLIMERS project, where farmers and agronomists delivered 97 on-farm trials over three years.
Their work helped develop an algorithm which can turn a field soil scan into a slug risk map. Initial tests suggest the approach could reduce slug pellet use by an average of 50%, representing a potential industry saving of around £6 million a year.
Tom using the slug maps developed as part of the SLIMERS project
Tom also highlighted the opportunities emerging through ADOPT, part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Program, which supports farmer-led trials of new practices and technologies. BOFIN currently has 10 ADOPT projects underway, ranging from relay cropping and British baked beans to weed detection using robot dogs.
“In the 30 years I’ve been reporting on agricultural innovation, I’ve never known a time when genuine innovative flair on farm has been so well supported,” said Tom.
“The Farming Innovation Program, particularly ADOPT, is one area where Defra is getting it right.”
Asked whether private finance could play a greater role in supporting farmer-led R&D, his response was unequivocal.
“Yes, absolutely. And yes, please.
“Defra has shown what farmers can achieve when they are given the opportunity and resources. We’d love to see private finance get behind farmer-led research too.”
He added: “Let’s champion the people who are doing this well, do more of it and bring in private finance too. It makes sense for them, and it makes sense for farming.”
Gene-edited barley secures UK marketing notice in ‘regulatory milestone’ for precision breeding
A gene-edited barley developed by scientists at Rothamsted Research has received a UK marketing notice, marking another step forward for precision-bred crops moving from research into trials on commercial farms.
The barley, which is part of the DEFRA-funded PROBITY project, has been granted a precision bred organism (PBO) marketing notice (reference PBM/25/HOVU/001), published on 13 March 2026.
It confirms that the crop meets the criteria set out under the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023, following advice from the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) and formal confirmation by the Secretary of State.
The barley was developed by a team led by Professor Peter Eastmond, using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing techniques to introduce small, targeted mutations in two genes linked to lipid metabolism.
Professor Peter Eastmond in the Rothamsted greenhouses
The changes result in higher lipid content in plant tissues, a trait which could increase the metabolisableenergy of feed and potentially reduce methane emissions from ruminant livestock.
The crop is initially intended for cultivation in England for use in animal feeding trials, representing an early stage in its route toward wider commercial adoption.
The barley is one of the gene-edited crop varieties being progressed as part of the PROBITY project, a multi-partner initiative led by the British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) that is bringing precision-bred cereals into trials on commercial farms for the first time in Europe.
Prof Peter Eastmond said: “Receiving the first precision-bred marketing notice for a crop in the UK is a major milestone and reflects many years of research into plant lipid metabolism and gene editing at Rothamsted.”
Tom Allen-Stevens, managing director for BOFIN and PROBITY project lead said: “This is an exciting step forward in the process of bringing gene-edited crops from research facilities into on-farm trials, subject to further approvals for food and feed.
“For farmers in England it signals the beginning of access to a new generation of crop varieties with targeted traits that could help meet some of agriculture’s most pressing challenges.”
Webinar to launch new oilseed rape project and knowledge exchange community
Arable farmers, researchers and agronomists are invited to a webinar on Thursday 26 March to learn about a major farmer-led oilseed rape research project and two early ways farmers can get involved.
The webinar, which will run from 8.30-9.30am, will outline exciting new research into light leaf spot being carried out by the LLS-ERASED project, as well as opportunities to get involved.
This includes the free ‘OSR Circle’ community, which connects growers, scientists and other experts to share knowledge and help shape research priorities.
Members of this community will be the first to be invited to become the project’s ‘Spore Scouts’ by sending in leaf samples to researchers at the University of Hertfordshire.
The webinar will also be the first chance to hear about a new precision-bred OSR line with significantly reduced susceptibility to this devastating disease. It is currently being multiplied up ready for farmer-led field trials – the first of their kind across Europe.
LLS-ERASED is a three-year £2.5m farmer-led project funded by Defra’s Farming Futures R&D fund. Led by the British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN), it brings together farmers, plant breeders, crop scientists and agronomists to tackle light leaf spot using precision breeding alongside new disease-management tools.
Speakers for the webinar are Tom Allen-Stevens of BOFIN, Prof Yongju Huang of the University of Hertfordshire and Dr Faye Ritchie of ADAS. They will also be joined by the project’s technical lead Dr Rachel Wells of the John Innes Centre, and Scottish Agronomy’s Adam Christie, for a Q&A session.
Tom Allen-Stevens urged anyone with an interest in the future of oilseed rape to register for the webinar to find out more.
“Oilseed rape is an important break crop, but light leaf spot is a growing threat to its viability. I encourage farmers and other industry experts to join us to hear about the fascinating work being undertaken to tackle this damaging disease, and the opportunities to get involved.
“The OSR Circle community offers an opportunity to tap into expertise and experience from growers and other experts from across the country. Anyone with an interest in the crop is welcome to join and contribute. For those keen to do something practical, we will also launch our Spore Scout campaign which invites farmers and agronomists to send leaf samples to our scientists at the University of Hertfordshire.”
Farmers urged to consider FETF opportunities as applications open
Innovative farmers are being encouraged to take advantage of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) which opens for applications on 17 March.
Tom Allen-Stevens, Oxfordshire farmer and founder of the British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) said: “The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund is a fantastic opportunity for farmers to invest in kit that improves productivity of their business. I urge anyone wanting to innovate, to take time to look through the list to see what could work for your business.
“If you’re thinking about applying it’s also worth asking whether it could form the basis of an ADOPT project. It’s a great way to test something out on your farm, see how it performs, and share the results with other farmers. As approved project facilitators BOFIN is always happy to discuss potential ADOPT applications with farmers who want to explore what’s involved.”
Applications for the FETF fund, which includes three grants to help farmers buy items to improve productivity, manage slurry, or improve animal health and welfare, will be open from 17 March until midday on 28April.
Farmers can submit one application for each of the three grant ‘themes’ if they wish. Each application must be for between £1,000 and £25,000. For full details including how to apply are available online.
BOFIN calls for clarity on Defra funding announcement
Tom-Allen Stevens responds to the Defra Secretary’s recent announcement at the NFU conference.
The £345 million announced by Defra secretary Emma Reynolds at the NFU conference yesterday (24th February 2026) is welcome news, but without further clarification it raises further questions.
Tom Allen-Stevens, Oxfordshire farmer and founder of the British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) Tom Allen-Stevens said: “It is good to see that Defra is continuing to fund the Farming Innovation Programme which supports farmer-led research and that there is a further £50 million for the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund. The question is whether this is enough.
“When Defra first announced plans to move away from direct support to the Environmental Land Management schemes, some 9-10% of the £2.4 billion farm transition budget was safeguarded for ‘Improving Farm Prosperity’ which included the innovation measures announced today.”
It is unclear how many years the £345m headline figure covers, he continued. “The £225m for capital measures for ELMs should sit outside that Farm Prosperity Fund. Paying for fences, hedges and pond restoration should not be branded as supporting innovation.
“But what farmers are crying out for is clarity on ADOPT. The scheme was originally backed by a commitment of £43m, yet only £20.6m has so far been allocated to a number of excellent farmer-led projects. Will Defra now commit to making the rest of this fund available? We have pioneer farmers queuing up ready to take up the opportunity.”
Mr Allen-Stevens also called on the Government to fully future-proof the FIP. “Defra has led the way on investing in farmer-led research, and the current FIP is ground-breaking. The funds announced today will take us to the end of this Parliament. It will be up to this government to take the strategy forward and propose the next stage of the programme.
“Defra says it wants farm businesses that are productive, profitable, and resilient. FIP can deliver on that, but needs a long-term strategy beyond 2030, giving farmers and researchers the confidence to invest in innovation.”
Emma Reynold’s announcement, made to the NFU Conference today, can be found here.
UK farmers are invited to examine new evidence on the use of hyperspectral satellite imaging to inform nitrogen management, at a webinar on Thursday 26 February (8.30am).
The British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) is working with agri-tech company Messium to explore how this next-generation satellite technology performs on commercial farms and the value it can realistically deliver.
Unlike conventional satellite imagery such as NDVI, which measures crop greenness or biomass, hyperspectral imaging can detect the specific wavelengths associated with nitrogen concentration in the crop itself.
“Previous satellite tools couldn’t tell whether a crop was short of nitrogen or just low biomass,” explained Messium CEO George Marangos-Gilks. “Hyperspectral satellites can now do both. That allows us to identify where crops are under or over-fertilised and where nitrogen is likely to lead to an uplift in yield.”
George Marangos-Gilks, CEO of Messium
Messium’s approach is underpinned by more than 21,000 crop samples analysed in laboratories and linked to satellite imagery to train its models. Independent blind testing has shown accuracy of around 85% compared with lab results, with further UK validation underway.
Results from more than 150 on-farm trials across the northern hemisphere suggest the technology can help farmers move closer to optimum nitrogen levels. Across its trials, Messium reported a net profit benefit in 65% of cases, with an average yield uplift of 0.3t/ha and margin improvements of around £50/ha.
The live online Q&A sessionwill be held at 8.30am on Thursday February 26. It will include side-by-side comparisons with NDVI imagery and a discussion on costs, complexity and where hyperspectral data may add value. Hosted by Tom Allen-Stevens, Oxfordshire farmer and founder of BOFIN, the session will focus on the farmer experience with input from growers who have first-hand experience of Messium’s technology.
“Nitrogen is one of the biggest cost, productivity and environmental levers on farm, so any tool claiming better insight needs proper scrutiny,” said Tom. “This session is about looking at the evidence, the limitations and how it works in practice on real farms.”
A £2.5m, three-year project bringing the first precision-bred oilseed rape onto commercial farms in Europe has been launched this week, marking a major step towards rebuilding the UK’s most important break crop.
The project, Light Leaf Spot Enhancing Resistance And reducing Susceptibility with EDiting (LLS-ERASED), is led by BOFIN Farmers and funded through Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, delivered in partnership with Innovate UK. It brings together farmers, plant breeders, crop scientists and agronomists to tackle light leaf spot, oilseed rape’s most damaging disease, using precision breeding alongside new disease-management tools.
Light leaf spot has become the number one disease threat to UK oilseed rape, with yield losses estimated to have risen from £94m in 2017 to more than £300m in 2022. Despite widespread fungicide use, control has become increasingly unreliable as pathogen populations evolve and resistance to azole fungicides spreads. At the same time, currently available varieties struggle to offer strong, durable resistance.
LLS-ERASED aims to change that by delivering oilseed rape varieties with significantly reduced susceptibility to light leaf spot, developed using precision-breeding techniques that accelerate the introduction of beneficial traits without introducing foreign DNA. Crucially, the project will move these traits beyond the laboratory and into farmer-led field trials on commercial farms, supported by real-time disease forecasting and decision-support tools.
“This project is game-changing for farmers,” says LLS-ERASED project lead Tom Allen-Stevens of BOFIN Farmers.
“It will put precision-bred oilseed rape technology on to their farms for the first time across Europe. This is combined with risk forecasting and a new decision support tool that will bring growers effective disease control that is truly risk-based and data-driven. That is the reboot the industry needs, and that is what will help reverse the decline in the crop’s planted area.”
Tom Allen-Stevens, BOFIN
At the heart of the project is a newly identified plant susceptibility gene. By switching off this gene using precision breeding, researchers have shown it is possible to reduce the ability of the light leaf spot pathogen to infect the crop, offering a more durable form of protection than traditional resistance genes that pathogens can quickly overcome.
The science is being led by John Innes Centre and the University of Hertfordshire, working alongside ADAS and Scottish Agronomy to integrate the new trait into practical, farm-ready disease-management strategies. A consortium of leading UK and European oilseed rape breeders is involved in developing the disease-forecasting and testing material in elite commercial backgrounds. UK Agri-Tech Centre is overseeing project delivery and integration, supporting effective collaboration across partners and ensuring outputs remain focused on adoption, scalability and real-world impact.
A key element of the project is collaboration with US-based Cibus (NASDAQ: CBUS), whose Rapid Trait Development System™ (RTDS®), a suite of technologies including non-transgenic processes, enables precise genetic edits to be introduced directly into elite breeding lines with scale and speed, dramatically shortening the time needed to bring new traits to market.
“I am really excited to move our resistant material from the laboratory to field scale trials to see how it performs in a real-world setting,” says LLS-ERASED technical lead Dr Rachel Wells of John Innes Centre.
Dr Rachel Wells, John Innes Centre
“Precision Breeding offers us an excellent opportunity to develop material to combat our pests and pathogens while supporting sustainable farming. Developing a trusted pipeline to streamline the process from research to variety release will be invaluable for crop improvement. Bringing this work together in an integrated pest management package looking at multiple, combined solutions, is the future of crop protection.”
For airborne diseases like light leaf spot, information on timing of pathogen spore release and virulence in pathogen populations is essential for effective disease control, adds Yongju Huang, Professor of plant pathology at University of Hertfordshire. “Combined with host resistance information about the pathogen, this project will develop an evidence-based real-time decision support system for farmers to achieve effective disease control and reduce the reliance on chemicals.”
Alongside new varieties, LLS-ERASED will deliver a farmer-led delivery platform designed to support the adoption of precision-bred crops. This includes a new disease-management tool combining weather data, pathogen monitoring and on-farm trial results to guide fungicide use more accurately, reducing unnecessary applications while protecting yield.
“The project offers a well-timed opportunity to focus on improving the control of light leaf spot, and the field-based guidance available,” comments Dr Faye Ritchie, technical director at ADAS. “Farmer collaboration and knowledge is essential to build effective disease management tools and IPM testing protocols that are practical and cost-effective.”
Dr Faye Ritchie, ADAS
Farmers will play a central role in LLS-ERASED through on-farm trials across England, feeding results directly into a grower-led knowledge-exchange network. The approach is designed not only to bring the first precision-bred oilseed rape varieties to commercial farms, but also to establish a pipeline for future traits. This will include resistance to other diseases and pests such as cabbage stem flea beetle, which is widely reported as a major limiting factor for UK oilseed rape growers.
“By combining precision breeding with integrated disease management and farmer-led testing, the project positions the UK at the forefront of efforts to rebuild oilseed rape production in a more resilient, sustainable way,” says BOFIN’s Tom Allen-Stevens.
“What’s more, building on similar precision-breeding grower-led platforms, it establishes the UK as a world leader in the technology and an on-farm testbed for future traits. This has potential benefits for farm profitability, pesticide reduction and food security, not just for the UK, but across Europe, as the EU moves towards greater acceptance of new genomic techniques.”
Farmers prioritise crop resilience in precision breeding poll
Farmers have placed rooting ability at the top of their priority list for future crop breeding efforts, according to results from a poll by the British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN). It comes as BOFIN Farmers prepare to trial a wheat with a novel rooting trait.
The ‘Wellies of Wisdom’ poll, held at five major agricultural events this summer – including Cereals and Groundswell – asked visitors: “If precision breeding could introduce any of the following traits to crops, which would be most important to you?” Respondents cast their votes by placing a token in a wellington boot labelled with their preferred trait.
Among farmers, rooting abilitycame out on top, followed closely by pest and disease tolerance/resistance and nutrient use efficiency. Together, these results reveal a clear farmer focus on crop resilience, soil health and reducing inputs.
“The Wellies of Wisdom were a fun, engaging way to get people talking about precision breeding and its potential benefits,” said BOFIN managing director Tom Allen-Stevens. “But these results also send a strong message – farmers are looking for practical traits that deliver real benefits above and below ground, improving both their resilience and their bottom line.”
Other groups shared slightly different priorities. Scientists and researchers favoured pest and disease resistance, human nutritional needs, and nutrient use efficiency, reflecting a balance between agronomic performance and food quality. Agri-industry professionals aligned with farmers on nutrient use efficiency and pest resistance, but also flagged food safety as a key concern. Meanwhile, those describing themselves as ‘just curious’ placed more emphasis on drought and salinity tolerance and human nutrition, highlighting broader environmental and consumer interests.
The poll is part of BOFIN’s PROBITY project, which is bringing precision-bred crops onto commercial farms for the first time in Europe. BOFIN is now actively recruiting PROBITY Pioneers – farmers willing to join paid on-farm trials in 2025–26.
“In the first year of PROBITY trials, we’ll be growing varieties developed through a technique called TILLING to assess traits also being introduced by gene editing,” Tom explained. “Two of these varieties show enhanced gravitropism which means they develop deeper roots that could make them more drought resilient.
“But we don’t know yet whether they are – these lines haven’t been tested in the field, and scientists need to know how this trait will perform before they can develop it further. We’re particularly keen to work with growers in drought-prone areas to really put these deeper-rooting varieties to the test.”
Interested in joining the PROBITY project to help test new traits? Visit www.bofin.org.uk/LeadtheField to find out more.
