Action 3
"Priority must be given to developing advice in Scotland
which uses benchmarking and peer review so farmers and
others in the food chain can see how others operate and
test their own business against the best elsewhere in
Scotland and abroad."
Progress
Two specific initiatives, the first in respect of
"benchmarking" and the second in respect of "peer review",
have been undertaken to assist in the delivery of this
action.
Benchmarking
Under A National Strategy for Farm Business Advice and
Skills, SEERAD launched the FarmBASS Local Initiatives Fund
(in December 2004) to support Local Enterprise Companies in
setting up workshops to help farmers improve their business
development, planning and benchmarking skills. This
followed a 6-month pilot of the Fund over winter 2003 which
included benchmarking workshops.
SEERAD has also supported the development and delivery
of Milkbench, a benchmarking tool aimed at dairy farmers.
Support in using and interpreting the benchmarking
information will be available through workshops, business
clubs and other peer group forums. Further support to
farmers is available through the FarmBASS Whole Farm Review
scheme (see
Action 1 and
Action 2).
SEERAD will continue to encourage farmers to make use of
these opportunities to improve their benchmarking skills
and will consider other initiatives in the light of
progress. Action now rests with farmers to take up the
opportunities available to them.
Links
- National Strategy for Farm Business Advice and
Skills:-
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/agri/fbas-01.asp
http://www.milkbench.org.uk/ndbs/Public/content.aspx
Peer Review
Five Monitor Farm projects have been set up with funding
from the Scottish Executive, Scottish Agricultural College,
QMS and Local Enterprise Companies. A Monitor farm (MF)
project is a system of facilitated knowledge and technology
transfer in which a group approach is adopted to problem
solving. Each MF project involves a community of farms and
other businesses focussed around one "typical" example of a
farm in their area which acts as a source of data for
benchmarking. Together with a facilitator, the community
defines the roles which each participant will take in the
MF project and agrees on the data to be collected for
benchmarking.
The MF projects will continue to operate until 2006/2007
when results will be evaluated to establish how valuable
the Monitor Farm approach might be in Scotland.
Action 3 is complete in respect of the
"benchmarking" element. The "peer review" element is
well underway though results will not be available
until 2006/2007.
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