Farmers in North Ayrshire, West Aberdeenshire and Orkney will be able to apply for free business support through the Royal Countryside Fund (RCF) Farm Resilience Programme.
The RCF will once again work in partnership with RSABI to deliver free workshops focused on business training skills, as well as one-to-one support to farming families.
The organisation will further award £15,000 to RSABI to assist the charity work supporting agricultural families.
Livestock farmers can now apply to part in the programme, which is open to dairy and livestock family farms, as well as crofters. The workshops take a whole-farm and whole-farm approach.
The programme has been running since 2016 and in that time has supported around 1,400 farming families to improve business performance and make real changes on farm. 58% of farmers who have taken part have reported increased profitability, while 73% said it increased their business skills.
Keith Halstead, executive director of The Royal Countryside Fund, said: “The RCF was delighted to be working in partnership with RSABI on delivering the Farm Resilience Programme in Scotland in 2023/24.
“We are very much looking forward to this year’s programme getting underway.
“The workshops cover areas such as benchmarking and improving on-farm efficiencies to reduce costs, as well as succession planning, integrating environmental management and business planning. 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.”
Carol McLaren, chief executive of RSABI, said the charity was looking forward to working with the RCF again this year, following the successful delivery of the programme in Ullapool, Stranraer and Caithness over the past year.
“With agriculture facing particular challenges at the moment and a time of change ahead, this free-of-charge programme offers farming families a very valuable opportunity to really focus on their businesses and identify where savings can be made and profitability improved. A wider benefit is that the programme pulls farmers together to share experiences and suggestions.”
Doug Bell, who is working with RSABI to manage the programme in Scotland, said the Farm Resilience Programme represents a fantastic opportunity for farming families. “Those who take part will gain insight into their own businesses and benefit from a wide range of expert consultants, brought in to deliver the workshops. The value of the programme was again emphasised by the overwhelmingly positive feedback from last year’s participants.”
Coordinators are currently being sought for the designated areas, which will be open for applications shortly. Anyone interested in the role should contact Doug Bell at crofthill@outlook.com.
For more information go to www.royalcountrysidefund.org.uk
