Farming families in three areas of Scotland have been invited to sign up for free business and environmental training from the Prince’s Countryside Fund (PCF).
Livestock farmers and crofters in the selected areas can apply to take part in a programme which offers free business skills training to family farmers.
It is open to dairy and livestock family farm businesses and crofters in Stranraer, Ullapool and Caithness.
Since 2016, the Farm Resilience Programme has supported more than 1,200 farming families to improve their business performance and make real changes on-farm.
A recent independent evaluation of the programme found it delivers significant economic, social, and environmental benefits for farmers, with 58% of farmers reporting increased profitability and 73% improving their business skills.
Programme increases ‘confidence of farming families in their decision-making’
Keith Halstead, executive director of the PCF, said it was delighted to be working in partnership with RSABI on delivering the Farm Resilience Programme in Scotland in 2022-23.
She said: “This is a tried and tested practical programme involving a series of workshops during autumn, winter and early spring.
“The workshops cover areas such as benchmarking and improving on-farm efficiencies to reduce cost, as well as planning for the future and business planning.
“The programme has been 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.
“We are very much looking forward to the meetings getting under way and we also plan to have an additional summer workshop, which will be on a topic chosen by the farming and crofting families involved.”
The work will be co-ordinated in Scotland by rural charity RSABI.
For more information, visit www.princescountrysidefund.org.uk/farmresilience
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