Harper Adams welcomes back CAAV President Andrew Coney and Secretary Jeremy Moody.

Harper Adams University welcomed back President of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, Andrew Coney, and Jeremy Moody, Secretary and Advisor to the CAAV after a year’s hiatus.

Mr. Coney started proceedings with a presentation outlining what the CAAV does, the role it plays in a wider industry context, and how environmental matters are now of top priority in the agricultural sector.

Mr. Moody, who was awarded an honorary doctorate by Harper Adams in 2008, spoke about the changes the new generation of agricultural valuers will see to the industry and countryside with Britain striving for that Net-Zero goal.

Principal Lecturer in Rural Land Management and Valuation, Dr. Mark Simcock said

“Jeremy spoke about the future of land use in the UK and that for all the talk of the changes to agricultural policy over the last five years this was now resulting in action from the government which would now need action from farming businesses.  We are about to see a generation's worth of change over the next decade he said.  He referred to the increasing competition for land use with nature, carbon, and flood management all placing additional demands on land. 

”He compared the scale of the change now facing British agriculture to that faced by the UK manufacturing industry in the 1980’s which came through that change with an increased focus on quality, research and development, and technological advancement and agriculture must now do the same.  He argued that we should not be frightened by this as the UK has some excellent producers but that our focus should be on productivity not necessarily producing more food but producing food more efficiently.

“Jeremy referred to the challenge of climate change and that as a country we face the biggest transition in our history.  The UK had made progress in cutting carbon emissions but that the task was to get more carbon into soils rather than necessarily more large-scale tree planting.  We face a situation whereby by 2050 4 million people will live in property at risk from flooding and as part of this transition electricity production would need to double, and that electricity would need to be delivered to wherever it was needed.

“Addressing the students directly, Jeremy argued that never more than now have clients needed help and advice from a “trusted advisor”. The work required to deliver this change was huge and the challenges in doing so would be immense but our students were entering the profession at a time of enormous opportunity and potential and that the road ahead was very exciting.

On thanking Jeremy for his presentation Dr. Mark Simcock said: “Jeremy is always a very engaging and informative speaker who was able to articulate very clearly the challenges and opportunities ahead.  His talk today was very well received by our students.

"Jeremy later met with Harper Adams Land and Property Management students and was able to expand on his comments - which in particular was useful for some  final year students currently starting their final year research projects.”