More government grants to benefit farmers

More government grants to help farmers increase efficiency and work together to share best practice were awarded today.

Food and Farming Minister Lord Whitty announced new grants under the Agriculture Development Scheme (ADS), designed to help farmers and the food chain to achieve improvements in line with the government's Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food.

The grants were awarded to English Farming and Food Partnerships, The Plunkett Foundation and CST Recorded Ram Marketing Group.

One grant will enable English Farming and Food Partnerships (EFFP) to promote and support co-operation and collaboration in the agriculture sector in England. A second grant will fund various initiatives to help farmer controlled businesses review key aspects such as how they run their businesses, how they lead them and what financial arrangements they put in place.

The Plunkett Foundation was awarded a grant for a project to promote best practice in setting up agricultural marketing co-operatives. It will identify key success factors from case studies and build them into models for other co-operatives to adopt in a best practice manual.

CST Recorded Ram Marketing Group received funds for a project to bring different parts of the food chain together to demonstrate the economic benefits of using improved sheep breeding techniques.

The latest awards take the total amount in ADS grants since 2000 to more than £13.9 million.

Lord Whitty said:

"These projects will help farm businesses secure a long term future. They will also help farmers work together more effectively and find new ways of adding value to their products. I wish them every success.