NEARLY £1 million is to be invested in agriculture teaching facilities in Aberdeen, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) has announced.
The learning institute said that the new facilities at its Craibstone Campus will help promote skills and knowledge to support the agriculture industry across the region.
More than £900,000 will be used to create a new engineering workshop and demonstration area for farm machinery.
Further to this will be the build of a new livestock shed and animal handling equipment will also be installed.
In addition, a new carpark will be built at the site, as well as storage areas for farming and demonstration equipment.
The investment follows £50,000 being spent earlier this year to create new student welfare and small group teaching facilities at the campus.
Professor Wayne Powell, principal and chief executive of SRUC, said, “Helping to prepare agricultural students with the skills and knowledge to move with the times and take advantage of new opportunities has been and always will be an important part of what we do at SRUC.
“This is not just an investment in buildings, but an investment in the food producers of tomorrow who will be at the vanguard of addressing climate change and biodiversity loss through adoption and deployment of new innovative technologies and land use practices.”
NFU Scotland vice president, Andrew Connon, added, “For many years, Craibstone has been a hugely important agricultural education facility. The nationwide delegation of members from NFU Scotland that met with SRUC on site at Craibstone this week (Thursday 4 November) welcomed the opportunity to hear first-hand about the much-needed investment.
“The north east of Scotland is the power house of Scottish agriculture and the farming community throughout Scotland is desperate to see improvements and further development of agricultural education facilities in the region to support all sectors during this period of great change in the industry.”
