With the new £30 million Farmer Collaboration Fund opening in England, Stuart Knight looks at how working together can help farmers test ideas, share knowledge and find practical solutions. He explores what today’s farmer-led collaboration can learn from a long history of farmers working together.
First announced at the Oxford Farming Conference in January 2026, and following a series of workshops with farmers and land managers to help shape the scheme, Defra has recently provided an update and early guidance on the Farmer Collaboration Fund (FCF). This government initiative, with a budget of £30 million, will support existing and new groups of farmers, growers, and other land managers in England in working together to manage land in a productive, sustainable, and nature-friendly way.
Organisations based in England can apply for funding to act as delivery partners, who will facilitate farming collaboration groups that must include farms. Initial guidance is that each delivery partner must support at least five groups, with at least four separately managed farms in each. With the first round opening on 1st September 2026, agreements are expected to last three years. Further rounds are expected to open in 2027 and 2028. The fund is not open to applications from individual farmers, growers, land managers, or group facilitators.