Family farm awarded £23,000 LEADER grant

The focus of the LEADER programme is on growing the economies of rural communities
The focus of the LEADER programme is on growing the economies of rural communities

A family farm in Worcestershire has been awarded £23,000 from a LEADER grant allowing them to purchase new equipment.

Richard Revill and his family, who run Oak Tree Farm, grow a range of field scale vegetables on 390acs of ground.

As part of their enterprise, they grow and pack approximately 1400 tons of potatoes per year for the chipping markets.

The money they have received from LEADER has allowed them to purchase an automated potato sack palletising system.

The system has allowed the farm to nearly double their hourly production totals and reduces their production costs.

It has also taken the physical handling of full potato sacks away from the staff, meaning they have been able to concentrate their effort on the grading side of production.

Growing economies

LEADER is part of the Rural Development Programme for England and is delivered locally by Worcestershire County Council and the Worcestershire Local Action Group on behalf of Defra.

The focus of the LEADER programme is on growing the economies of rural communities by enabling local people to identify and implement solutions to local problems.

The project has received funding from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development under the Rural Development Programme for England. Defra is the Managing Authority for the Rural Development Programme for England.

Richard Revill, of Oak Tree Farm said: “The increased hourly production has meant that orders have been met on time and that further orders have been placed because of our increased productivity.

“Automation has also meant that we have increased our haulage efficiency. Pallets stack heights can be changed easily for different types of haulage transport.

“This means that most of the haulage leaving the farm is 'at or near to' their maximum weights which leads to reduced haulage costs and less road pollution per ton of potatoes.”