The Royal Countryside Fund announces £20,000 partnership with Rural Support
The Royal Countryside Fund (RCF), the UK-wide charity founded by HM King Charles III to support farming families and rural communities, has announced a new £20,000 partnership with long-standing partner Rural Support, the support charity that helps farmers and their families across Northern Ireland.
(Derek Lough, Chair of Rural Support; Keelin Reilly, CEO of Rural Support; and Janet McCollum, Trustee of The Royal Countryside Fund)
This partnership also marks a decade of the RCF’s Farm Resilience Programme. Since 2010, the RCF has supported 5,722 family farms across the UK, including 287 in Northern Ireland. Rural Support has been the RCF’s sole delivery partner in Northern Ireland throughout that time. Most recently this March, Rural Support worked with a group of farmers in Cookstown and provided business support to 20 family farm businesses in the area.
The programme was designed with the whole farm and whole family in mind. Its free business and environmental training helps farmers improve their finances and environment, and build confidence for the future of their farm.
Working alongside a local coordinator, farmers take part in three practical workshops to help:
- Make sense of what’s changing, from markets to policy.
- Explore current and future business and environmental opportunities.
- Build a practical plan that suits their short-term goals and long-term business strategy.
The new £20,000 partnership will help fund Rural Support’s Farm Support Coordinator role, which is pivotal to ensuring that the programme’s support continues to reach farming families who need it most. It will also strengthen Rural Support’s wider Farm Support Unit, which provides vital assistance to farmers across Northern Ireland in times of need and emergency.
The Farm Resilience Programme will return to Northern Ireland this autumn, welcoming a new cohort of farmers who will receive a free Business Health Check and take part in business skills workshops. Farmers from the existing group will also progress to environmental workshops, covering topics including biodiversity and water management.
The programme is tailored to small livestock farms, but open to any farmer who may benefit.
Beth Owen-Smith, Senior Programme Manager at The Royal Countryside Fund, said:
“Farming continues to face very real pressures on the ground. Extreme weather is becoming more frequent, costs rise faster than incomes, markets and policies change overnight, and it’s family farms who often feel the impact first and hardest.
We’re proud to continue our partnership with Rural Support to help them reach those in need of vital support, and continue our commitment to farming families across Northern Ireland. Our Farm Resilience Programme has been tried and tested over the last decade, working with farming families to make sure our support meets them where they are. We know what they care about and what’s important to the survival of the small family farms we all depend on. We urge any farms in Northern Ireland who would benefit to take part in our Farm Resilience Programme this autumn.”
Keelin Reilly, Chief Executive Officer of Rural Support, said
“We are deeply grateful for our long standing partnership with the Royal Countryside Fund, which has enabled Rural Support to work alongside hundreds of farming families over the past decade. This latest £20,000 award will allow us to continue supporting farm businesses across Northern Ireland as they build more sustainable and resilient futures, while also strengthening the vital work of our Farm Support Team in helping families during times of crisis. We sincerely thank RCF for recognising both the importance and impact of this work.”
To find out more about the RCF’s Farm Resilience Programme, please visit www.royalcountrysidefund.org.uk/farmresilience