Climate change leads the CLA to announce its supported for a call for a funding boost for research into agricultural production.

The CLA said there needed to be a better understanding of the issues around biotechnology if we are to produce more food and a better environment during a period of continued climate change.

CLA president Henry Aubrey-Fletcher says: "Over past few decades the resources put into agricultural research, by successive governments, has been falling. There are now significant challenges facing world food production which is why investment is so urgent to maximise the potential of British agriculture. 

"This can only be done with research into all technologies, whether they be agronomic, chemical, conventional breeding or biotechnology.

"The use of biotech crops is often seen as controversial, but it provides agriculture with the best chance of feeding a growing world population.

"There must be development and better understanding to help the agricultural industry, the public and the Government make an educated decision as to whether production is put in place in the future. It can take 15 years to develop a new strain of a crop so the battle is already on for 2030 cropping varieties."

Aubrey-Fletcher adds: "If the UK does not invest in research then British farmers will be disadvantaged with investment and increased production benefiting our competitors.

"Successful and safe use of agricultural technologies could be the most significant development in global agriculture and food security we have seen.

"The CLA calls on the Government to invest more in supporting the private sector in the necessary research. We support the Royal Society's call, in its recently published report on the future of agriculture, for up to £100 million to be invested every year in addition to current research spending, to support the private sector's research programme."