Agriculture: Finance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Department's press release entitled New support to help farmers thrive for generations, published on 16 July 2026, what assessment was made of the principal barriers to collaboration between farming businesses before announcing this policy.
Answered by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Farmer Collaboration Fund was created to address a gap in support for collaboration and peer-to-peer learning. While the Government already helps farmers and land managers develop a range of skills, there are limited opportunities to learn from each other and work towards shared objectives. Farmers are more likely to adopt new practices if they can see them working in a local setting, and collaboration at scale can accelerate change. Although many farmer groups and clusters operate across England, they often lack sustainable funding, which limits their capacity to maintain momentum, strengthen networks, and deliver long-term business and environmental benefits.
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