The FFRF (Future Farming Resilience Fund) provides free, confidential business support during the early years of the agricultural transition to farmers who currently receive BPS.
It does this by awarding grants to different organisations, who then help farm businesses to:
- understand the changes ahead
- identify how and when they may need to adapt their business models
- access tailored support to adapt
The goal is to help individual businesses understand how they will be affected by forthcoming changes and plan for the future. The support is more than just looking at support schemes available, but looking at the farming business itself.
Anyone receiving BPS is eligible to apply, but each provider is operating on a first-come, first-served basis, so interested members are advised to sign up sooner, rather than later.
Visit: GOV.UK | Get free business advice for your farm or, to see where you can get free advice in your area, visit: GOV.UK | Organisations giving free advice in your area
This is the final, scaled-up part of the FFRF, with 17 organisations that bid to deliver a range of different advice packages – some nationally, some in specific parts of the country.
Providers will have access to the latest information from Defra, so they’ll be able to give up-to-date advice on topics if appropriate.
Timeframes
Around £32 million of funding was available, which will provide resilience support to up to 32,000 farmers in England between October 2022 and March 2025.
The business insight provided could be delivered in a variety of ways, from workshops with experts to direct, one-to-one farm business advice.
Defra has confirmed that those who have received funding support in earlier phases of the FFRF can take part in the scale-up and build on that advice.
NFU activity
The NFU has worked with Defra to ensure this support package is fit for purpose for farmers. We've asked that there is geographical coverage with choice of providers and asked that the scheme gives the opportunity of in depth discussions about farm business and that such support is there over a period of time.
We are not a provider of the service but are helping facilitate the reach of the scheme to our members. We recommend that members consider the offers from the providers carefully – they all offer slightly different approaches to farm business support and you need to find the right one that fits your needs.
Please watch out for more NFU activity around this support programme.
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