Shropshire Farming Talk: AHDB to help farmers educate the next generation

Many kids today don’t have much understanding of where their food comes from, and we want to try and change that.

We’ve teamed up with Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF) Education to give 20 farmers from England and Wales fully funded training and support to deliver school visits. This will help give more children the opportunity to experience a real working farm first-hand.

We hope this be fun as well as educational for the children and really rewarding for the farmers.

Applications are open to farmers who are relatively new to hosting school visits within the Beef and Lamb, Cereals and Oilseeds, Dairy, and Pork sectors. Successful farmers will receive Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme (CEVAS) training and accreditation starting in November.

Those taking part will also gain access to the support of the LEAF Education Specialists and benefit from opportunities to network with like-minded experienced host farmers. Schools will also have access to funding towards transport, which is often a real barrier to getting school children out on farms.

I am so excited to launch this pilot project as I believe it has the potential to make a real difference to the way that school children learn about where their food comes from.

Levy payers have picked education as one of the areas of AHDB’s work that’s most important to them, so we want to make sure they know we have listened, and for them and future generations to benefit from this. The feedback gathered from this pilot project will help shape AHDB’s future education projects.

We’re not the only ones excited about the project; Carl Edwards, LEAF’s Director of Education and Public Engagement said he was delighted to be partnering with AHDB and that he believes the project will help to equip farmers with the skills and knowledge they need to deliver engaging and informative experiential learning opportunities, which is essential in ensuring that the next generation understands and values food production from farm to fork.

If you’re a levy payer interested in getting involved in the project, you can submit your application by visiting ahdb.org.uk/schoolfarmvisits. Deadline for submission is October 16.

Roz Reynolds, Head of Education, AHDB