The Royal Countryside Fund announces £15,000 of new support for Rural Support

These farm support groups are trusted partners of the RCF and are embedded in the rural communities they serve. This new funding will support a range of sustainable projects to help create a successful future for farming families. The RCF’s Farm Support Group Initiative is supported by Waitrose & Partners and the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust.

This RCF funding will allow Rural Support to provide more support for family farms across Northern Ireland, to help them weather economic difficulties and combat the rural mental health crisis.

Keith Halstead, Executive Director of The Royal Countryside Fund, said: “This funding is about powering-up family farms and giving them the support they need to survive and thrive. Our aim is to support rural communities across the UK, helping to sustain a living landscape of working family farms and prosperous rural life. Farming can be so different across the UK, so it’s important to us that we support locally-run farm support groups who are embedded in the communities they serve and therefore know what will make the biggest difference in their local area.

“Farmers are currently facing a whole raft of challenges and we know it’s a difficult time for so many families, so it’s vital our funding goes to where it will make the most impact. The farm-support groups we’ve chosen to fund are truly innovative and collaborative organisations that are working with their local communities to find new and sustainable ways to build a better future. These are all community-led support groups which can help farmers find the right opportunities, look after their health and wellbeing, and promote sustainable, economic, social and community development.

“I want to thank our supporters and corporate partners who help us fund this change. To all these generous organisations and individuals, I want to say: thank you, your support is making a real difference.”

Kevin Doherty, CEO, Rural Support, said: “Through the additional funding from The Royal Countryside Fund, we are able to support the work carried out within our Farm Business Unit by bringing on an additional staff member to focus on working with farmers to build resilience and improve planning processes within their farm business. This funding comes at a vital time as the Agri–sector continues to face incredibly challenging times with so much outside of the farmer’s control. We will be working to support farmers, so they have the tools to manage their businesses through rapidly changing times and be prepared to avail of opportunities. Thanks to this funding we can more fully achieve our mission which is to develop a strong and more resilient farming community in Northern Ireland.”

The nine farm support groups which are receiving RCF funding are: Rural Support; Dartmoor Hill Farm Project; Exmoor Hill Farming Network; Farm Cornwall; Herefordshire Rural Hub; The Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RSABI); The Farmer Network Ltd; The Farming Life Centre; Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services Ltd (UTASS)

To find out more about the RCF’s Farm Support Group network, please visit: http://www.royalcountrysidefund.org.uk/farmsupport