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A major recruitment campaign to encourage British people to provide seasonal labour amid the coronavirus outbreak will ‘open up’ opportunities for a future in agriculture, growers have said.

Growers have launched a large-scale recruitment campaign to encourage British people to provide seasonal labour to harvest crops, due to a severe lack of local workers amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Demands for ‘assurances’ on whether the number of seasonal visas on offer will be dramatically increased have intensified, as concerns over coronavirus grow.

Around a third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted – a fact that I still find hard to comprehend, says Peter Maddox, WRAP director.

New guidance to expand the reach of the UK’s Food Waste Reduction Roadmap has been published, providing growers with advice on tackling food waste.

The Government has appointed Nicholas Saphir as the new chairman of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) from April 1, 2020 for a three year term.

AHDB and NFU have launched a new survey to identify the skills shortage and possible solutions in the horticulture sector.

The Government’s immigration policy is xenophobic and does not consider the needs of Scottish farmers and crofters, says John Finnie, Green MSP for the Highlands and Islands.

Defra Secretary George Eustice has been criticised at NFU conference this week for failing to provide clarity on whether the number of seasonal visas on offer will be drastically increased.

Within two days of the UK Government announcing its plans to control migration it has had to quickly row back on its proposals by allowing a new range of jobs to be classified as skilled.