Many farmers tell us they are looking for ways to build resilience and sustainability, but don’t always know where to start or how approaches could be implemented on their own farms.
We are therefore delighted to announce the launch of our new programme, Upscaling Agroecology, which will showcase what agroecological and organic systems can look like in practice, explore the principles behind them and provide opportunities for peer-to-peer learning and support.
This collaborative project is led by Soil Association Scotland and delivered across Scotland by the Scottish Agroecology Partnership (SAP)*, promoting agroecological and organic farming practices through:
The project will explore how adopting agroecological and organic approaches can help farms enhance viability, boost biodiversity, reduce carbon footprints, tackle disease resistance, improve soil health and water movement, protect natural capital, reduce pollution and boost profitability and financial resilience.
We will be running a series of free-to-attend in-person events and webinars and producing and disseminating a range of case studies and useful resources to help accelerate adoption of regenerative agricultural methods, strengthen rural resilience, and ensure that regenerative practices are grounded in real-world experience.
These objectives will support the Scottish Government’s Vision for Agriculture ambition for a 'whole farm approach' to reducing emissions and environmental impact and to 'encourage more farmers and crofters to farm and produce food organically'.
This project is funded by The Scottish Government through the Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund (KTIF) which supports projects that promote skills development or deliver improvements in business practice, resource efficiency, environmental performance and sustainability.
*Scottish Agroecology Partnership (SAP) is a collaboration of eight organisations rapidly becoming the voice for agroecology in Scotland which aims to ‘make agroecology central to farming, crofting and growing in Scotland’. This formal partnership is made up of:
