A leading Scottish arable company has donated £1,000 to a rural education charity.
Scottish Agronomy Ltd, which provides specialist combinable crop and potato growing advice to farmers across Scotland, made the donation to the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET).
RHET is a charitable arm of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS), which organises the four-day Highland Show every year.
It sets out to teach children about food and farming.
Scottish Agronomy managing director, Andrew Gilchrist, said the donation was made to RHET because the company was keen to promote education in agriculture.
“We think it is very important that children learn about agriculture and the provenance of their food,” he said.
“It is important for us to get the next generation interested in farming and the science behind it and RHET are doing a good job delivering this message.”
RHET director George Lawrie and the charity’s countryside initiative developer, Clare Dickson, received the donation and said it would go towards continued provision of free “classroom to countryside” education for children between the ages of three and 18.
Ms Dickson said: “We have several hundred RHET volunteers across the industry throughout Scotland, and we are keen to involve businesses wherever possible. People who engage with RHET activities tell us how much they enjoy learning about what happens on a working farm and we are eager to encourage pupils from the more senior years to demonstrate to them career opportunities within the industry. This support from Scottish Agronomy is a huge help for RHET to ensure our services remain free.”
Mr Lawrie said the charity came into contact with approximately 65,000 children every year thanks to £1.2million worth of volunteer hours.
However this would not be possible without financial support, added Mr Lawrie, and the charity needed to raise £200,000 every year from sponsorship, grants and donations. In addition RHASS provides funds of £200,000 to RHET every year.
