Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference earlier this month, Defra secretary Steve Reed confirmed that secondary legislation would be delivered by the end of March 2025.
The Genetic Technologies (Precision Breeding) Act was passed in 2023, and the secondary legislation will permit crops developed using precision breeding techniques such as gene editing to enter the food chain.
“Precision breeding offers huge potential to transform the plant breeding sector in England, enabling innovative products to be commercialised in years, instead of taking decades,” Reed said.
He added that the legislation will enable farmers to grow crops that are “more nutritious, resistant to pests and disease, resilient to climate change, and that benefit the environment”.
The news has been met with approval by partners in the PROBITY project, a three-year, £2.2m farmer-led project that has received funding via Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme Small R&D Partnership.
PROBITY – which stands for ‘A Platform to Rate Organisms Bred for Improved Trait and Yield’ – is aiming to boost understanding of the potential value of precision-bred crops and their potential future role in a more sustainable food and farming system.
Reacting to Reed’s comments, the project’s technical lead, Professor Nigel Halford of Rothamsted Research, said: “It is great news that the government is moving forward with this.
“Many parts of the world are way ahead of us on precision breeding, and we need to catch up.”
Tom Allen-Stevens is an Oxfordshire farmer and founder of The British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) which leads the PROBITY project.
He explained: “While countries in Asia and the Americas are way ahead of the UK on this, The Genetic Technologies Act created some competitive advantage – for farmers in England at least – within Europe. However, without the necessary secondary legislation it would be meaningless as farmers wouldn’t know if they would be able to sell crops created through precision breeding.
“Our concern now is that the legislation comes into effect in time, to enable us to progress our trials, planned to start this autumn. These trials are essential if farmers are to assess whether this technology will deliver the benefits expected.”
BOFIN has also written to MPs to stress the importance of the secondary legislation to the advancement of precision breeding.
“We want an informed discussion so that everyone in the industry understands precision breeding and has the opportunity to shape how it comes into UK fields,” the letter said.
“Our PROBITY Pledge campaign invites anyone with an interest in agriculture to spend a minimum of one hour learning about precision breeding and what it could mean for sustainable food production and to share their views with our online community The Sequence Circle.”
To learn more about the role of BOFIN and the aims of PROBITY, read our extensive interview with Allen-Stevens from September of last year.
