The Farming for Sustainability Scheme – Knowledge aims to provide farmers and growers with a range of knowledge delivery methods to support the objectives of the SAP and support businesses to adapt to change.
The Scheme is capable of reaching people across all farm businesses due to a range of intervention levels. It provides a structured pathway for Knowledge Transfer (KT) progression, meeting the needs of all farmers from those requiring basic information to those requiring more support to aid complex decision making. This can be represented diagrammatically below:
As a result of the scheme’s multiple KT layers, each incorporating varying depths of knowledge, there are a number of separate interventions that can be applied:
· Lower-level awareness information – available to all farmers in a variety of formats.
· Training – for training required by a significant number of farm businesses, DAERA will focus on delivery via e-learning courses. However, not all participants will have internet access, confidence or skills required to use this method, so additional face-to-face training is required.
· Peer to peer group learning:
o Business Sustainability Groups – longer term, whole farm approach, aimed at larger farm businesses.
o Themed Groups – shorter term with a specific focus.
All support provided under the scheme is provided free of charge to farm businesses in Northern Ireland.
This contract will be broken down into 2 Lots.
