NFU Scotland has withdrawn its support for digital grain passports (DGP), recommending that the project does not proceed.
NFU Scotland has informed the Cereal Liaison Group of its decision ahead of a meeting today to vote on whether the digital grain passports developed by AHDB should proceed to the 鈥榖uild phase鈥�.
The decision was taken after the Union鈥檚 Combinable Crops committee received a demonstration of the digital grain passport system prototype earlier this month.
The committee went on to discuss the pros and cons of digital grain passports in detail before arriving at its decision.
On balance, it found that the cons outweighed the pros. The committee also discussed digital grain passports with members in their regions.
Vote
A further full committee meeting was held on the November 11 and, following a vote that reflected the majority views of members, NFU Scotland opted not to support digital grain passports proceeding to build phase.
Combinable Crops Committee chair Willie Thomson says: 鈥淲hile many committee members could see some potential advantages of digital grain passports, there was a concern over value for money, future cost increases, and extension of their scope. There was an overall feeling that digitising the passports would make something simple more complex and less accessible, at an unreasonably high cost.鈥�
Support
Meanwhile, NFU remains supportive of the project. NFU chief combinable crops adviser Anthony Hopkins said the union is glad the AHDB is taking feedback on board.
"More work is required to ensure the concerns that growers have expressed are addressed. These specifically refer to questions around who is responsible for completing and holding each part of the DGP, how it will cope with those in areas with poor or limited access to the internet, whether the process is simple enough, and whether the governance is sufficiently robust.鈥�
