asked Her Majesty's Government:What projects have been awarded grants under the Agriculture Development Scheme 1999; how much has been awarded to each project; and what criteria were used when awarding the grants. [HL915]
As my right honourable friend the Minister announced on 2 February, 47 awards of grant totalling £2 million have been made under the Agriculture Development Scheme 1999. A list of the successful projects is given below. The size of individual awards is commercially confidential but they range in value from £5,500 to £100,000.Each application was assessed against the following criteria: the abilities of the proponents to deliver the project, and their financial viability; the requirement for grant to progress the project; the economic difficulty being experienced by the sector targeted, the proportion of primary producers within the sector likely to benefit from the project and the duration of that benefit; the likely benefit to the agri-food economy as a whole; the relevance of the project to the issues facing the sector; value for money; the quality and credibility of the application; and the quality of proposals for disseminating the results of the project to relevant interests.
| Sector | Lead organisation | Project title |
| Pigs | Assured British Meat | National assurance database information and administration system (pigs module) |
| Pigs | Assured British Meat | ABM Assured British Pigs Scheme data merger |
| Pigs | BOCM Pauls Ltd | Maximising pig carcass value |
| Pigs/organic | Eastbrook Farm Organic Meats Ltd | Growing the organic pigmeat market from a UK production base |
| Pigs | Food Trak plc | Traceability in the pig meat supply chain |
| Pigs | JSR Farms Ltd | Integrated pig meat supply initiative |
| Pigs | Ladies In Pigs | A catering colleges initiative to secure the future for British pigmeat in catering |
| Pigs | Meat & Livestock Commission | Project 2: improving supply chain communications |
| Pigs | National Pig Association | A risk management initiative for the UK pig industry |
| Pigs | United Pig Marketing | A shared IT and information system for UPM and its supply chain partners |
| Pigs | University of Aberdeen | A training package for the British pig industry using multi-media technology |
| Beef | Glendale Beef Producers | Glendale Beef Producers initiative |
| Beef/dairy | Warwickshire Quality Calves | Improving the value of beef calves from the dairy herd |
| Dairy | National Milk Records plc | Proposal for a southwest dairy information network |
| Dairy/organic | Organic Milk Suppliers Cooperative | Design and initial implementation of a novel technology transfer and quality management system on organic dairy farms |
| Dairy/speciality | Business Link Bradford & District | Feasibility study into potential for a yoghurt production facility for the Asian community |
| Eggs | British Free Range Egg Producers Association | British Free Range Egg Marketing Company Ltd |
| Sheep | British Sheep Dairying Association | Implementation of structural development of the sheep dairy sector |
Sector
| Lead organisation
| Project title
|
| Sheep/speciality | Business Link Bradford & District | New routes to new markets—investigation into ways of making better use of sheepmeat products to the benefit of producers |
| Wild boar | The British Wild Boar Association | To improve collaborative marketing activity between primary and secondary producers of British farmed wild boar |
| Livestock general | Assured British Meat | Multiple retail caterers— food safety assurance module |
| Livestock general | Assured British Meat | Assurance chain—focus farms |
| Livestock general/regional/ speciality | Assured British Meat | Assurance and food heritage |
| Livestock general | Farmway Ltd | Marketing cooperatively produced branded port, beef and lamb through "Farmway" co-operative stores: a feasibility study |
| Livestock general | Harper Adams University College | Building regional enterprise and agricultural competitiveness through IT(Breakthrough-IT) |
| Livestock general | Meadow Valley Livestock Ltd | Improving farmers' efficiency and returns by directing them to market led, added value marketing schemes |
| Livestock general | South East Primestock Producers (SEPP) Ltd | A plan for regional growth and farmer |
| Livestock general/organic/ speciality | Humane Slaughter Association | Mobile slaughter unit 2000 |
| Nursery stock | Horticultural Trades Association | A project to influence structural change in the landscape supply chain to build value in the soft landscape market |
| Nursery stock | Horticultral Trades Association | A project to extend the HTA nursery certification scheme to include the inspection and supply of local provenance |
| Nursery stock | Horticultural Trades Association | A project to develop a greater understanding of the supply chain within the nurserystock sector |
| Onions | British Onion Producers Organisation | Sector analysis of the onion market |
| Potatoes | Hereward Growers | Collaborative marketing initiative |
| Soft fruit | Advanced Marketing Services Ltd | Soft fruit development for category management |
| Soft fruit | The Berryworld Producers' Organisation Ltd | Development of an integrated traceability system for the soft fruit industry |
Sector
| Lead organisation
| Project title
|
| Tomatoes | Tomato Growers Association | Investigation into the development of an intergrated quality management system for the British tomato industry |
| Top fruit | Fruition Group Ltd | Rationalisation: the basis of a full category player |
| Horticulture general | Checkmate International | Benchmarking services for the EUREP GAP framework |
| Horticulture general | Institute of Grocery Distribution | Benchmarking the industry |
| Combinable crops | Samuel Rose Ltd | Promoting vertical integration through farmer collaboration in agricultural supply chains |
| Combinable crops | United Grain Producers | "The Marlborough Group" (working together to improve farm incomes) |
| Farmers' markets | National Association of Farmers Markets | Together to market |
| Direct selling | Farm Retail Association | Red and Green box scheme feasibility study |
| Viticulture | The Magpie Consultancy | Formation of a collaborative marketing company owned by producers and devoted to the marketing development of the wines and vineyards of England |
| Trout | Longford Estate | Co-ordinated approach to trout marketing |
| General | Plunkett Foundation | Increasing competitiveness in the farmer controlled business sector through the use of best practice benchmarking |
| General | Lantra | Increasing the competitiveness of the land based sector |