Farm Innovation Visit (FIV) reports are available to view on the CAFRE website

July 31, 2024

Farm Innovation Visits, funded by the NI Rural Development Programme, were study tours by a group of farmers or growers from Northern Ireland to a location outside Northern Ireland.

A group of farmers between 15 and 20 people, were led by the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) staff who have expertise in the subject area.

The main objectives of the scheme were to increase the opportunity for farmers to visit farms in Great Britain or elsewhere within the EU to learn personally and practically from another farmer; to encourage farmers to apply knowledge gained from these visits to improve their farming business; and to prompt farmers to share the knowledge gained from these visits with their peers on their return. Almost 5000 peers have been part of this dissemination process.

Kenneth Johnston, Farm Innovation Visit Programme Manager, CAFRE, highlights the success of the programme: “To date, 38 different FIVs have been completed attended by 584 participants in a range of subject areas across the full range of agriculture and horticulture enterprises, as well as environmental issues that impact farming.”

The tours were for two or three days and typically the group visited a number of businesses and perhaps research centres where the innovation of interest has been implemented. In addition, there is often input from world class specialists with an in-depth knowledge of the subject. To date, visits have taken place to locations including Scotland, England, Wales, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

If you are interested in finding out more about previous trips, reports have been completed and are now available to view at: www.cafre.ac.uk/fiv-reports