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Topic 1: 9:45am – 10:45am |
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Day 1 Chairperson - Rohit Kaushish, chief economics advisor, NFU |
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Day 2 Chairperson - David Exwood, vice president, NFU |
Breaking down access to new markets to cultivate business resilience
Rohit Kaushish
NFU Chief economics adviser
Rohit oversees a team of economists, statisticians and rural experts to develop and communicate the economic policy of the NFU.
Key areas of focus include measures to manage agricultural market volatility, enhance productivity and environmental delivery.
With a background in finance and ecological economics, specific areas of interest include investigating how natural capital approaches, net zero transition, environmental markets and government initiatives can support the resilience of the agricultural sector and food systems.
David Exwood
NFU vice-president
David farms south of Horsham in West Sussex with his wife and two sons over 1200 tenanted hectares in the heart of the Sussex Weald.
Starting in 1989 with 70ha the business now has arable, dairy beef, Sussex suckler herd and sheep enterprises. In 2003 the Farm Shop opened and sells a wide range of food from the Victorian stable yard at Westons.
He has served previously within the NFU as Branch Chair, West Sussex Council Delegate, South East Regional Chair as well as four years on Governance Board. David was elected to the position of NFU Vice President in February 2022.
Dr Lydia Smith
Director, NIAB and the Eastern Agritech Innovation (EAI) Hub
Lydia leads Interactive farmer-facing research into sustainable farming; especially soil health, crop genetic improvement and waste minimisation; with a focus on routes to valorisation of all crop products.
She has previously lectured in soil science, crop microbial interactions, environmental biology and land reclamation before moving to NIAB.
Lydia has more than 30 years’ experience of practical and farmer-facing research and with a strong track record of building farmer and industry interactive consortia.
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