Succession planning is crucial for UK farmers to ensure the continuity and sustainability of their agricultural businesses, according to new research* from wealth manager Investec Wealth & Investment (UK) with 100 freehold farmers across the UK. The findings reveal that four in five (78%) UK farmers surveyed have had a formal valuation assessment of their farm undertaken in the past five years and that the majority (88%) confirm that they have a robust plan in place for the future succession of their farm, fewer than one in 10 (9%) say they have no such plan in place.

Farming is often a multi-generational enterprise that is deeply rooted in family traditions and values. This is underlined by the findings that 92% of UK farmers interviewed say that once the current generation has stepped back from running the farm, they expect that the next family generation will take over and run the business. Almost all (98%) of UK farmers surveyed said they are confident that the next generation wants to run the family-owned farm, and 93% believe that their children or other family members will be capable of doing so successfully. Nearly all (99%) of respondents agree harmony exists between the different family generations running the farm, with 23% describing the level of agreement as “excellent” and 60% describing it as “good”.

Farmers in the United States who raise livestock in large industrial operations could get funding from President Joe Biden's signature climate law to transition to more environmentally friendly practices under bills introduced in the House and Senate on Wednesday, reported Reuters.  Agriculture accounts for about 10% of US greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from livestock production and fertiliser application. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in 2022, included nearly $20 billion for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of the farm sector. About 1.7 billion animals are raised on US industrial livestock farms, and they produce twice as much waste as the country's human population, according to the environmental group Food & Water Watch. The facilities can produce significant air and water pollution.

Despite India’s hopes of becoming self-sufficient in food and crop production, a leader of a powerful farm group in that country recently told the Canadian pulse and special crops sector that Canada can play an important role in the giant nation’s needs. “There are lots of opportunities where Pulse Canada and (the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation of India) can further work upon, and we should, devise a road map,” said Sunil Kumar Singh, additional managing director of NAFED, in an address to the Canadian Pulse and Special Crops Convention. India is a perennial hope and fear for Canada’s pulse and special crops farmers and exporters. It is an enormous market that is actively promoting the consumption of pulse crops, but it also has a tradition of market intervention to manage domestic prices.