The ‘ADAS Farmers’ Voice survey’ has shown farmers are more positive now than at the start of the decade about the future of farming. The annual state of the nation survey questioned farmers from England and Wales in February 2009.
The Farmers' Voice Survey covered a range of subjects aimed at assessing the attitudes to the future of farming and business performance, providing insight into the state of farming. Detailed information from the survey can be downloaded below this article.
Significantly, this year’s results show that despite the current economic crisis affecting many industries, business performance in farming is improving. Encouragingly, 30 per cent of farmers are now managing to maintain their profit level, compared to only 4 per cent in 2000.
Since the survey was first undertaken there has been a big increase in the number of farmers now happy to stay in farming for the foreseeable future (2000 - 14 per cent / 2009 - 39 per cent).
The proportion of farmers who think their business may not survive has more than halved (2000 - 10 per cent / 2009 - 4 per cent) and there is an even divide between those farmers who have diversified enterprises (53 per cent) and those with no current or intended diversified enterprise (47 per cent).
Mark Temple, a senior ADAS consultant says: “The findings from the survey are a timely insight into the views and perceptions of the farming industry. Questions about farmers’ attitudes to the future of farming have been consistently ...
Register to view all of this article »