United Kingdom
May 14, 2009
The
National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) and
The Arable Group
(TAG) are at an advanced stage of merger discussions to create a
national, independent centre for applied crop research and
information.
Both organisations believe a merged operation, focused on the
needs of progressive arable farmers, will provide an unrivalled
source of high quality, unbiased research and information,
offering expertise and services along the length of the seed,
variety and crop protection development pipelines.
The merger will also bring operational benefits through
increased flexibility and critical mass in key staffing areas,
while improved economies of scale and resource efficiencies will
provide greater financial stability and investment capability.
In a joint statement announcing the merger talks, NIAB Board
Chairman Tony Pexton and TAG Board Chairman Geoff Elliott said:
“At a time of increasing interest in crop improvement and
productive agriculture, a new national organisation, combining
NIAB’s core skills in plant genetics, variety evaluation and
seed testing with TAG’s strengths in applied agronomy research
and farmer communication, will be ideally placed to meet the
crop research and information needs of UK arable farmers, allied
industries, levy boards, research councils and Government.”
A further announcement on the details of the merger will be made
once due diligence procedures have been completed later in the
summer. |
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