BREXIT OFFERS an ideal opportunity for the UK to once again become a powerhouse of global agri-tech innovation.

According to Suffolk Conservative MP George Freeman, the rise of radical lobbyists in Europe was threatening to legislate the EU "back into the dark ages", but outside its strictures, the UK would be free to create a legislatory framework which could, he said, pave the way for "a new Victorian age" of applied science with global impact.

Speaking at the Rothamsted Open Innovation Forum, Mr Freeman said the UK now had a chance to open its doors to global innovators, nurture 'beneficial' technologies and roll them out across the world to help developed and developing countries alike.

“We won’t build a 21st Century economy unless we’re open to the science that we need, and we can’t build a global Britain on a narrow, isolationist platform,” he stressed.

Mr Freeman said that the UK government had invested heavily in a new agri-tech strategy: “It is my passionate belief that this country needs to produce more for less – globally we need to double food production on the same land area using half as much water. That’s a big challenge, but it’s perfectly do-able. This forum has exactly the expertise and cluster of talent we need to be convening.”

Delegates at the Rothamsted conference also heard from Dr Christian Witt from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who discussed how smart phones, the internet and open access to data could all be used to speed up technological development and help nations move from subsistence farming to more productive, profitable systems: "We want farmers to be empowered with the knowledge, tools and technologies to improve their livelihoods and lift themselves out of poverty.”