The Prince’s Farm Resilience Programme offers free business-skills training to family farm businesses, providing the tools to evaluate their business viability and long-term sustainability, enabling them to make informed decisions on their future direction.
OVERVIEW
The past few years have been a very challenging time for the farming sector. Years of declining farm gate prices and uncertainty about the future of UK farming policy and funding has put pressure on farm businesses.
The East Devon AONB Partnership partnered with The Prince’s Countryside Fund to deliver the Prince’s Farm Resilience Programme.
Aimed at supporting family farm businesses to improve their confidence, efficiency and resilience, the programme helps farming families to prepare for change and build more robust businesses, capable of being successful in a changing environment.
Farms sign up to the programme as a family business and then the whole family can access a series of workshops and one-on-one meetings with local coordinators, in addition to business health check tools.
Open to family farms whose main enterprise is livestock or dairy, many of the farms that participated in the East Devon programme were mixed, with more than one on-farm enterprise or diversification.
OBJECTIVES
- Support family farm businesses to improve their confidence, efficiency and resilience
- Help farming families to prepare for change and build more robust businesses capable of being successful in a changing environment.
KEY DATES
- 2018Â – Project start dateÂ
- 2019Â – Project end dateÂ
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
Workshops
- Business planning
- understanding accounts and budgeting
- Exploring new opportunities for your farm
- Succession planning
- Farm diversification and making better use of redundant farm buildings.
Business Health Check Tool
A benchmarking tool designed to demonstrate the benefits of improved record keeping on farm, look at their strengths and weaknesses and allow anonymised costs comparison against similar farm businesses.Â
One-on-One Sessions
One on one sessions with local coordinators and on-farm visits from the AONB Team to help the families develop their farm action plans.
PROJECT OUTCOMES
All the farms that participated in the scheme benefited from the experience and for some it catalysed positive change in their business operations and succession planning.
WORKING TOGETHER
The Prince’s Farm Resilience Programme was coordinated by the East Devon AONB Team in partnership with The Prince’s Countryside Fund
PROJECT FUNDING
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