Farm resilience programme to be extended in Scotland
© Betty Rong/Adobe Stock Free business support for dairy and livestock farmers in North Ayrshire, West Aberdeenshire, and Orkney is due to be rolled out this autumn.
Skills workshops and one-to-one support for farmers is being made available through the Royal Countryside Fund’s farm resilience programme.
Advice on benchmarking, succession planning, environmental management and cost reduction are all covered in the workshops.
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It will be provided in partnership with the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution (Rsabi), which has been awarded a £15,000 grant to help facilitate the work.
The programme has supported about 1,400 farming families since 2016.
Keith Halstead, executive director at the Royal Countryside Fund, said: “The programme has shown to increase the confidence of farming families in their decision making which enables their farm enterprises to become more adaptable and helps build their resilience to change.”
Rsabi chief executive Carol McLaren added that the free-of-charge programme offers farming families a valuable opportunity to focus on their businesses and identify where savings can be made and profitability improved.
Farm businesses interested in the programme can sign up on the Royal Countryside Fund’s website.