A big thank you to everyone who entered the inaugural Agrii Innovation Award!

We're pleased to announce that the winner of our first award is Luke Medd from West Whorley Hill in County Durham.

On his farm, Luke is aiming to improve soil health and reduce reliance on chemical controls, whilst enhancing biodiversity and increasing the future sustainability of the farm.

After graduating from Harper Adams in the summer of 2021, Luke, together with his father Alan, is looking to explore options for moving towards a more regenerative approach from their conventional tillage system. With an interest in exploring the benefits and barriers regenerative agriculture can bring to their own farm in County Durham, Luke is organising a long-term trial to compare a regenerative system to the traditional ‘farm standard’, with the hope that it will not only benefit them, but also communities of farmers in the area, encouraging open days and telling their story through social media.

With the phasing out of BPS and gradual introduction of ELMS, Luke sees it timely that farmers look to employ more sustainable approaches to food production, working to support the environment. “I feel that our region tends to be distanced from major research areas. Areas such as Lincolnshire tend to be favoured where there is predominantly more cropped land” says Luke. “With many differing factors such as climate and soil types, what is seen to work for some, may not work on a farm like ours in the North East.”

Luke is keen to explore how different equipment, cover crop species and establishment techniques impact soil health and crop quality. With the help of RHIZA field scanning and Agrii’s input, through his studies, he hopes to provide scientific evidence for the benefits and potential caveats of employing a regenerative approach, and help others to make similar transitions

You can follow Luke’s progress on Instagram @ReGenAgNorthEast and we'll also be posting updates on our website highlighting Luke's progress going forward.

The Agrii Innovation Award was set up as part of Agrii's Green Horizons Initiative to ensure that we had a mechanism for welcoming new and innovative ideas from farmers and agronomists. Applicants were asked to consider three questions when submitting their ideas:

• Is it providing a solution to one of many agronomic challenges?
• Will it increase productivity in a sustainable way?
• Will it improve farmer profitability?

The 2021 Innovations Award is now closed, but we'll be running the Award again in 2022.