Catalogue description Agricultural Research Council and Agricultural and Food Research Council: Reports, Minutes and Papers

Agricultural Improvement Council

In 1941 the Scientific Advisory Committee of the War Cabinet recommended that two bodies (one for England and Wales, one for Scotland) be established to advise the agriculture ministers on the applications of research. Accordingly the Agricultural Improvement Council for England and Wales, chaired by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and consisting of official and independent experts, was appointed by the minister on 12 June and announced on 30 June 1941.

The initial appointment was for three years, but in 1944 the council was reappointed with revised membership and renewed triennially thereafter. After 11 June 1962, however, the council was not reappointed and on 24 January 1963 the minister transferred the advisory functions to an Agricultural Advisory Council and a Horticultural Advisory Council, which were to be chaired independently of the ministry. These councils have themselves been superseded by five advisory bodies constituting the Joint Consultative Organisation for Research and Development, which advises the agriculture departments and the Agricultural Research Council.

At first the Agricultural Improvement Council (AIC) was asked to devise means of relaying research findings to practical farming and to advise on desirable research projects, but at the first reappointment the terms of reference were widened to a general responsibility for reviewing and advising on the application of advances in technical and other areas of agricultural research; the work was intended to complement that of the Agricultural Research Council.

Agriculture Research Council: History and functions

A committee of the Economic Advisory Council on Agricultural Research Organisation recommended in April 1930 that a single authority should be given responsibility for the coordination and supervision of agricultural research. An order in council of 28 July 1930 authorised the appointment of a Committee of the Privy Council for Agricultural Research, consisting of the Lord President of the Council, as chairman, and six other members.

On 23 July 1931 the Agricultural Research Council was established by royal charter, with a supplemental charter of 24 March 1933. The council was to consist of not more than fifteen or less than twelve members, one of whom was to be also a member of the Medical Research Council and one of the Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

The division of responsibility between the new council and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries remained somewhat unclear, but in principle the two bodies were supposed to consult each other on all their research undertakings, with the council acting as the chief advisory body and coordinator on agricultural research to the Development Commission and any other institution not directly governed by the ministry. It was empowered also to establish research centres and undertake research on its own account, and was responsible to the standing committee of the Privy Council for agricultural research, which was chaired by the Lord President of the Council with the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Home Secretary, the Secretary of State for Scotland and the President of the Board of Education as members.

In March 1949 the committee's scope was widened to cover nature conservancy and it was renamed the Committee of the Privy Council for Agricultural Research and Nature Conservation. Two orders in council of 1 April 1956 relieved this committee of all responsibility for agricultural research and it became a separate Committee of the Privy Council for Nature Conservation. A new Committee of the Privy Council for the Organisation and Development of Agricultural Research consisted of the lord president as chairman, the Minister of Agriculture Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State for Scotland.

The early work of the council, though restricted by conflicts over its authority with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, included a comprehensive survey of all agricultural research in Britain, organised by six special standing committees. In 1941 the council acquired full control over its grant-in-aid and in 1946 the Development Commission withdrew altogether from the sphere of agricultural research.

Following a recommendation of the House of Commons Select Committee on Estimates, the Agricultural Research Act 1956 gave the council statutory responsibility for the organisation and development of agricultural research; transferred to it from the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food responsibility for all state-aided agricultural research institutes in England and Wales; made the council directly responsible to Parliament for its expenditure, instead of this being borne on the Treasury vote (and previously the Privy Council vote); and established an Agricultural Research Fund into which were to be paid such sums as might from time to time be provided by Parliament for agricultural research and from which all expenses incurred by the council were to be paid. Under the Science and Technology Act 1965 responsibility for the council passed to the Secretary of State for Education and Science, and it became now a research council for the purposes of that Act.

Under a new charter of 24 May 1967 its objects were the organisation and development of agricultural and food research and research in fundamental sciences relating to agriculture; the establishment or development of institutions or departments of institutions for investigation and research relating to the advancement of agriculture or the production and processing of food; and the making of grants for such investigations and research. Basically its concern was with fundamental research, as opposed to applied research directed to the solution of specific problems, which was still carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food.

In 1981 the name was changed to Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC). In 1993 there was an administrative re-organisation of all research councils' structures and subject responsibilities under which the AFRC disappeared, although a new Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council inherited some of its research responsibilities. The council oversaw and financed 30 research institutes and 12 research units. Most of the older institutes had their own governing bodies, but some of those founded more recently were directly controlled by the council.

In order to bring under one organisation the control of government financed research into food questions other than those concerning fish, three food research institutes were transferred to the Council from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research on 1 July 1959: the Pest Infestation Laboratory, the Low Temperature Research Station and the Ditton Laboratory. The latter two were closed down in 1969 in a reorganisation of the council's facilities for food research.

The work of the Low Temperature Research Station was continued and extended by the Food Research Institute and the Meat Research Institute, set up in 1969 and 1968 respectively. Part of the work of the Ditton Laboratory was taken over by the Food Research Institute; its buildings and its work on the storage of apples and pears passed to the East Malling Research Station, aspects of vegetable storage research to the National Vegetable Research Station, and work on flowers to the Glasshouse Crops Research Institute. The Tropical Liaison Department of the Pest Infestation Laboratory passed to the Ministry of Overseas Development in 1964 and the laboratory itself to the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food in 1970.