Royal Countryside Fund benefits from lottery cash

The Royal Countryside Fund has been awarded £900,000 in funding by the People’s Postcode Lottery to help develop its environmental farming programmes.

Funding will be provided as annual payments of £300,000 over a three-year period.

The new funding will be used to expand its existing support programme which focuses on improving resilience and sustainability in farming.

See also: Free farm resilience help from the Royal Countryside Fund

Workshops will also be provided to help farm businesses get up to speed with environmental land management practices to ensure they are able to remain economically viable and can benefit from new government support schemes.

These workshops will be tailored for different regions across the UK, providing advice on various practices, such as increasing biodiversity and carbon management.

Keith Halstead, executive director of The Royal Countryside Fund, said: “We are immensely grateful to the players of People’s Postcode Lottery and the Earth Postcode Trust for this significant investment in the future of British farming.

“This funding acknowledges the critical importance of sustainable agriculture while also empowering us to make a tangible difference in the lives of family farmers and rural communities.

“It marks a major step forward in our mission to ensure a vibrant, sustainable future for rural Britain.”

The fund was established by King Charles in 2010, initially as the Prince’s Countryside Fund, and has since provided support to more than 4,000 farming families.