Future Farming Resilience Fund to launch in August
© Tim Scrivener Defra’s Future Farming Resilience Fund offering free consultancy advice is due to be rolled out to farmers next month.
The interim phase will run from August until March 2022 and will offer support to up to 9,000 farmers.
The fund was established to support businesses in the transition away from the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).
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It will cover areas including business planning, grant information and changes to business models, which will be offered to farmers free of charge.
Defra is due to announce the names of companies successful in tendering for the scheme later this month.
About £9m has been allocated for this initial phase of the scheme, with a larger rollout due to take place in April 2022.
Andrew Powley, team leader at Defra, said: “We were pleased with the number of applications to the invitation to apply for a grant from a variety of organisations, providing excellent geographical coverage.”
Industry views
Will Gemmill, executive partner at Ceres Rural, believes Defra’s new scheme will allow farmers to benchmark their businesses and adjust to the changes to BPS payments.
The fund will also allow farmers to consider potential new sources of income such as diversification or from the Environmental Land Management scheme, says Mr Gemmill.