New programme to help farmers manage risk
An innovative programme to raise farmer awareness of the risks likely to undermine the profitability and stability of their businesses was launched in London today (Monday, January 23rd).
The programme – Risk Aware – is Defra funded and has been created by a range of industry stakeholders. It is to be delivered by a partnership of Farmcare and Lantra and will be targeted at farm advisors and consultants to prepare them to deliver risk awareness to their farmer clients.
Commenting on the RiskAware initiative, Defra Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Lord Bach, said:
"Positive risk management is a core skill for farmers in all sectors, and the RISKAware project will raise farmers' awareness of it. That's why Defra is supporting this project, led by a major farm business with practical, hands-on experience of using risk management tools."
Speaking at the launch, project leader, David Gardner of Farmcare said:
"It is absolutely vital that farmers know, manage and mitigate the risks that offer potential threats to their businesses. Over the last 20 years the farming environment has changed considerably:
Prices are no longer protected by intervention and are much more volatile.
Most businesses no longer farm within a ring fence but have a variety of different land tenure agreements covering the area they farm
Cross compliance, environmental legislation, health and safety and employment law are all significant complications
Even divorce is more prevalent today than it was a generation ago.
"All these issues represent additional risks to the modern farm business. Owners and Managers need to be able to assess the potential risks their businesses face and quantify their impact. This programme will make a significant contribution to raising awareness of these risks and so improve farmers’ ability to cope with them."
The programme is targeted at farm advisors and consultants. The farm’s advisor will have a key role to play in helping explore these issues as they have the benefit of being able to ‘stand back’ and view the issues from outside the business.
The Risk Aware programme runs an accreditation scheme for farm business consultants to help them understand the range of risks that farmers face. The programme consists of a one-day training course followed by six on-line modules. These modules cover five areas of risk –Production, Price and Markets, Legal and Institutional, Financial and Personal with the final module taking the participant through accreditation.
The programme makes use of case study farms throughout, helping participants to analyse farm businesses and identify the significant risks that the business is facing.
The programme costs £200 per participant. This fee covers the training day, access to the modules and accreditation. To book a place on the Risk Aware programme please e-mail info@riskaware.org.uk or call 01162 592342.
Risk Aware is a Defra funded programme managed by Farmcare and Lantra with support from HSBC, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Futures and Options Association, Frontier, Environment Agency, Health and Safety Executive, NFU Mutual, HGCA, NFU and MLC.
