BOFIN (British On-Farm Innovation Network) returns to the Cereals Event with a powerful message: farmers want resilience, not just higher yields. The network is putting on-farm research centre stage this year with a packed programme that brings growers, scientists, and innovators together to share insights and shape the future of agriculture.

BOFIN will host a range of discussions and showcase research spanning root health, precision breeding, pulses, and slug resistance. Visitors will hear directly from participating farmers and project leaders at the BOFIN stand, with further insights available on partner stands, including PGRO.

One of the headline slots comes on the KWS Seed to Shelf stage, where BOFIN will lead a session on precision breeding. George Eustice MP, former Defra Secretary, will join to discuss the UK’s world-leading position on this technology and the new opportunities it opens for farmers. “We’ve surveyed our members, and nutrient use efficiency came out as the top priority,” says founder Mr Allen-Stevens.

“Traits like nitrogen-use efficiency, drought tolerance, pest resistance—all of these are now within reach, and farmers must play a central role in developing and trialling them and in shaping the growing systems into which they’ll be introduced.”

It will also spotlight the TRUTH Project (Thriving Roots Underpinning Total Soil Health), which is investigating root function, soil microbiology, and the rare wheat landraces with biological nitrification inhibition—the only cultivated wheats in the world known to have this ability, one of only two in the world. “We’ll be trialling them in spring,” says Mr Allen-Stevens. “This work could unlock new understanding of soil health and nutrient cycling.”

Looking ahead, BOFIN is also exploring the role of AI in agricultural data analysis. “The next big challenge is making sense of the vast data we’re collecting on farms,” he adds. “Watch this space, we're working on exciting tools to help turn that data into decisions.”