Farmers in North Ayrshire, West Aberdeenshire and Orkney will have the opportunity to benefit from free business support, worth around £120,000, via the 2023/24 Farm Resilience Programme, which starts this month.

The Royal Countryside Fund (RCF), formerly The Prince’s Countryside Fund, is again working in partnership with agricultural charity RSABI to deliver a series of free workshops, providing free business skills and environmental training and one-to-one support to farming families.

In total, 60 livestock farming families in the three areas will benefit from around £2000 of support per family business, and interested farmers can apply to join the programme here.

The programme is open to dairy and livestock family farm businesses and takes a whole-farm and whole-family approach with three excellent coordinators for each of the areas now appointed. Karen Johnston is the coordinator for the programme in Orkney, Gwen Chalmers in West Aberdeenshire and Kirsty Mitchell in North Ayrshire.

Since 2016, the Farm Resilience Programme has supported farming families throughout the UK to improve their business performance and make real changes on farms. A recent independent evaluation of the programme found it delivers significant economic, social, and environmental benefits for farmers.

Executive director, of The Royal Countryside Fund, Keith Halstead, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with RSABI to deliver the RCF’s Farm Resilience Programme in Scotland in 2023/24.

“It was a pleasure to welcome the programme coordinators from Scotland and elsewhere in the UK to a London workshop to familiarise them with the programme and its objectives for the coming year.

“I would encourage family farms in North Ayrshire, West Aberdeenshire and Orkney to find out more about the programme to see if it can help them plan the future of their farming enterprises.”

Chief executive of RSABI, Carol McLaren, said the charity was looking forward to welcoming the 2023/24 farming families set to take part in the programme, in the coming weeks.

“With the draft Agriculture Bill just published and a time of change ahead, the timing is ideal for the 2023/24 programme which offers farming families a unique 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 and offers a peer-to-peer opportunity to share experiences and suggestions.”

Doug Bell, who is working with RSABI to manage the project in Scotland, urged farming families to make the most of the programme and the considerable potential benefits it will offer their farm businesses.

He said: “This programme is a great opportunity to benefit from some excellent business support which is all provided completely free of charge, covering areas such as benchmarking and improving on-farm efficiencies to reduce costs.

“The workshops will also cover succession planning, integrating environmental management and business planning with the aim being to support farming families with their decision-making to enable their farm enterprises to become more adaptable and resilient.”

The three coordinators can be contacted via email for more information. In Orkney, Karen Johnston is on karenjohnston530@gmail.com. In West Aberdeenshire Gwen Chalmers can be reached on chalmersrural@outlook.com and in North Ayrshire Kirsty Mitchell can be contacted via k50mitchell@gmail.com

You can find further general information on The Royal Countryside Fund’s website www.royalcountrysidefund.org.uk