How does innovation happen? We know we need it, because we need to find new ways to tackle increasingly complex global challenges, like feeding our growing population sustainably.

But solutions need to be fit for purpose, and that means involving those who will be affected in building them. Scotland’s Rural Innovation Support Service (RISS) has a unique, bottom-up approach to innovation in agriculture that gets real results without wasting resources.

RISS allocates a facilitator to drive activity: to scope existing work, bring in the right people, organise meetings and get the group to project plan stage.

From building blockchain for food traceability, to tackling potato pests with shellfish waste, or rebuilding a sugar beet industry in Scotland, RISS, led by Soil Association Scotland, is supporting farmers to work with industry members, academia and others to find local solutions to global problems. We call that farmer-led innovation.

Come and play The Innovation Game online on March 15 to experience the RISS approach, and hear from five, farmer-led groups who played in real life, and won.

Innovation game topics will include:

The role of sugar beet in decarbonising Scottish industry
Creating a digital solution for food traceability
Can we grow a reliable, local source of organic protein for animal feed?
How can we stop Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN) decimating the Scottish potato industry?
What needs to happen for us to grow more pulses in Scotland?

The Innovation Game - RISS Showcase