HE was there to hear how pioneering “clean-tech” solutions being developed in Hampshire are playing a vital role in protecting food supplies and helping to prevent a global crisis and he was certainly impressed by what he saw.

George Freeman, MP, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture, dropped in at the Colden Common premises of Exosect to learn about the progress made by the cutting-edge pest control specialists.

The agricultural industry is under increasing pressure to achieve a 70 per cent increase in food production to feed a global population that’s set to hit nine billion in less than 40 years.

Mr Freeman heard how affordable solutions were being developed by innovative UK-based bio-control companies, led by Exosect.

“Approximately half of all food worldwide is lost to field and storage pests,” said Exosect MD, Martin Brown.

“Large commercial farming businesses already focus on efficiency to satisfy their corporate customers.

“The key to increased food production is support for smaller farmers.

“They feed the world’s poorer populations and there is huge scope to help them maximise the potential of their crops through sustainable, environmentally-friendly solutions that will not damage any link in the food chain but achieve pest-control solutions that increase yield on existing land.

“Creating pest-resistant crops is just one part of the equation; we also need to concentrate on protecting and nurturing what we have already grown. Biotech solutions exist in innovative technologies such as ours.

“The challenge now is to get them to small farmers in developing nations and this requires a great deal of investment in education programmes and in-market government support.”

Mr Freeman was taken on a tour of the Exosect laboratories to find out how Entostat platform technology, developed at the University of Southampton 10 years ago, was providing the food production industry with sustainable solutions for protecting crops in the field and in storage: from “pollen to plate”.

“As a keen advocate for British bio-technologies and agricultural innovation, my visit to Exosect has served to further highlight the importance of support for pioneers in global food protection,” said Mr Freeman.“I believe there is huge potential for cleantech technologies to help us meet the needs of global food demand.”

Exosect’s products currently have 28 national regulatory approvals as bio-control pesticides in 12 geographic markets including EU, USA, Australasia and India, where the team is conducting extensive rice-field trials.

As the second largest producer of rice in the world, India is under pressure to increase production volumes and yield growth. Exosect’s technology has provided an effective, natural alternative to synthetic pesticides and, importantly, early indications suggest yield improvements. This is now being researched further.