Farmers are doing it for themselves

Farmers will have an opportunity to pin their environmental and climate change work on a new webpage dedicated to encouraging the peer to peer exchange of ideas.

The Agriculture, Biodiversity and Climate Change Network (ABCCN) which was announced yesterday is a joint government and industry initiative which will see the Farming for a Better Climate website used to allow farmers and crofters to post a wide range of information, including videos and photos, to detail the environmental measures they had undertaken and the results.

NFU Scotland which is involved in the initiative said that peer-to-peer knowledge sharing was a powerful tool and the network would help drive change by providing a source of inspiration, where farmers and crofters could support one another by exchanging ideas as well as showcasing good practice.

Rural affairs secretary, Mairi Gougeon added that the scheme was part of the government’s commitment to launch a new and expanded peer to peer knowledge transfer initiative:

“We know there are farmers and crofters who are already doing some fantastic work to help reach these goals. We wanted to create something that would allow them to share their work so that others can take action to mitigate and adapt to climate change, as well as increasing biodiversity.

She said that one of the benefits of the network was that it would allow anyone taking action on climate and environment to take part:

“This will allow us to get advice and support from farmers and crofters in every area of Scotland and help inspire others to take action now.”