Business Links with Farming in the North-East. Farming Connections – why worry?

Whether Brexit occurs or not, agricultural policy in the UK and Scotland is going through another evolution. We are all familiar with the discussions around the public benefits that agriculture  produces for the country and how these things are increasingly reaching the minds of policy makers. However, the champion role farming plays in the wider rural economy is often forget, largely due to the evidence being anecdotal.

In his August column for Farm North East, Steven Thomson, Senior Agricultural Economist and Policy Advisor at SRUC, discusses the ongoing work to establish the nature and extent of connections between the farming, estate and forestry sectors and the wider business base in rural areas and towns. He highlights some of the key results from the second survey of rural businesses in the North East (Rural Report 2018/19).

To read and download the full article please follow the link below. For any comments, questions or queries please visit our contact pages, or email Steven directly on steven.thomson@sruc.ac.uk.

Business links with farming in the NorthEast – Farm North East

This research was funded by part of the Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programme 2016-2021, Theme 2, Work Package 2.4 Rural Industries.