2024 Nuffield Farming Scholars sponsored by the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society is proud to continue supporting the Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust, an organisation that awards individuals with life changing opportunities, with a view to developing agricultural sector leaders and innovators of the future.

All Nuffield Scholars work within the farming, food, horticulture or rural sectors and during their 18-month long studies will undertake their research project in their area of interest. They will receive a bursary to encourage them to travel for at least eight weeks, allowing them the opportunity to study practices used abroad and at home.

The society is delighted to sponsor two 2024 Royal Welsh Scholars. Lucinda Owen-George from Cardiff, whose chosen topic is, ‘Tea cultivation within agroecology – the development of a high value opportunity for UK farms’, and Gwion Parry from Pwllheli, who’s area of study is, ‘The disconnection between eating quality in the UK beef industry – from farm to fork’.

Lucy returned to her farming roots in South Wales to run the family farm a year or so after completing a BSc Business Management (Agri-Food) at RAU.  The farm had previously focused on soft fruit and ice cream production, but Lucy started diversifying into organic tea production in 2015. Now, the award-winning Welsh teas are now sold around the world.

Gwion grew up on the farm in the Llyn Peninsula, North Wales where he and his family farm a pedigree, performance recorded stabiliser herd and an early lambing sheep flock. Gwion studied Agriculture and Business at Aberystwyth University and in early 2023 started an ultrasound scanning business, measuring rib eye area, fat depth and marbling percentage in cattle all over the UK.

The Nuffield Scholarship offers a great opportunity for forward-thinking food and farming industry people, who are ideally in the second quarter of their working life, to have the chance to take time out over an eighteen month period, and study a key area for change or future development within the food chain. The ultimate objective for each scholarship is the presentation of a report that can help British farmers look at their own businesses and consider different ideas.

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society is committed to encouraging and supporting education and research within the agriculture and land-based industries in Wales. The continued investment in young people is one of the society’s key charitable objectives and an essential part of the society’s future.

Both successful candidates, Lucy and Gwion will be presented with certificates during the official opening ceremony of the Royal Welsh Winter Fair on Monday 27^th November.

For more information about the Winter Fair or to buy tickets visit the RWAS website.