New research finds more farmers trying CSA
Date Published: 12th July 2024
Almost 40% of farmers said they were trying out Community Supported Agriculture to diversify their farm.
Research of 100 freehold farmers across the UK, from wealth manager Investec Wealth & Investment, have found that farmers are diversifying traditional arable, dairy, or livestock farming to use their land in new ways to increase or supplement their income.
The most popular enterprise is increasing biodiversity through tree planting or carbon capture (66% of farmers surveyed) followed by starting to make new products to sell, such as cheese (43%) and trying out Community Supported Agriculture, where customers subscribe to receive regular deliveries of fresh produce or other farm products (38%).
Other initiatives are starting to attend farmers’ markets (35%), offering a tourist attraction such as holiday cottages or glamping facilities (25%) or starting to farm new livestock (24%), starting to farm new crops (19%), starting contract farming e.g. collaborating with local businesses to supply produce (18%), using land for renewable energy e.g. solar panels (17%) and launching a ‘pick your own’ (16%).
Read the full article at Farming News