William Waterfield (Andover)

The recent announcement of grants of up to £100,000 for farmer led innovation for trials or experimental projects that demonstrate innovative solutions for agriculture, forestry or horticulture and are an opportunity for farmers and growers to try out new ideas.  The ADOPT program is a collaboration with Innovate UK, the Agri-Tech centre ADAS and the Soil Association.

Projects will need to show that they will improve productivity resilience or environmental outcomes and could support landscape recovery type projects.  Whilst projects need to be farmer led, they can be collaborative which might include groups of farmers, researchers or advisors.  The focus of the ADOPT program is on projects that are testing / trialling solutions that are either new or not widely adopted.

Additionally, DEFRA have introduced an ADOPT facilitation grant to help applicants prepare an application.  This grant will fully fund an ADOPT grant application and help farmers develop a project with signposting, finding collaborators and other partners.

To support this project DEFRA has set up a support hub to help farmers apply.  Advisors will need to be registered to be able to access these grants.

If you have ideas for a potential, please get in touch with your local FCG Office, or contact William at w.waterfield@fcgagric.com