Free business skills training to family farmers – Recruitment underway for the Prince’s Countryside Fund’s Farm Resilience Programme in Caithness
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A recruitment drive has been launched to encourage farmers and crofters in Caithness to take part in The Prince’s Countryside Fund’s Farm Resilience Programme (FRP) which gets underway this autumn.
The Prince’s Countryside Fund (PCF) will be working in partnership with RSABI to deliver the 2022/23 series of workshops in Caithness, as well as Ullapool and Stranraer. As part of the partnership agreement, the PCF has awarded a £15,000 grant to RSABI to assist the work the charity does to support people in Scottish agriculture.
Livestock farmers and crofters in these areas will be able to apply to take part in the programme which offers free business skills training to family farmers. The programme is open to dairy and livestock family farm businesses and crofters and takes a whole-farm and whole-family approach.
Since 2016, the FRP has supported over 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 per cent of farmers reporting increased profitability and 73 per cent improving their business skills.
Keith Halstead, executive director, The Prince’s Countryside Fund, said the PCF was delighted to be working in partnership with RSABI on delivering the Farm Resilience Programme in Scotland in 2022/23.
“This is a tried and tested practical programme involving a series of workshops during autumn, winter and early spring," he said.
“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 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 underway and we also plan to have an additional summer workshop which will be on a topic chosen by the farming and crofting families involved.”
Carol McLaren, chief executive of RSABI, extended thanks to PCF for the grant support and urged farmers and crofters in Caithness to sign up to the FRP.
“With farming and crofting facing particular challenges at the moment, this programme, which is completely free of charge, offers farming families a very valuable opportunity to really focus on their businesses and identify where savings can be made and profitability improved.
“Very importantly, the structure of the programme workshops also offers farmers and crofters the opportunity to sit down for a meal together and share experiences and ideas.”
You can find further information on The Prince’s Countryside Fund’s website at www.princescountrysidefund.org.uk/farmresilience
Those interested in taking part in the forthcoming programme are encouraged to contact the regional coordinator Iona Cameron by email on info@cameronconsulting.org or telephone on 07920 756780.
