I am a director of our family farm and an independent agricultural consultant. Succession planning for families and their rural business is the area I will be researching. The purpose of my Fellowship is to develop a more holistic approach for advisors to solve the issue of getting more farming families engaged in the succession planning process.

Passing on the farming operation can be an emotional and difficult process. It is one of the biggest challenges that a family in business must cope with. Over 50% of farmers surveyed by the NFU in 2022 did not have a succession plan in place. Starting the conversation is the main barrier and is the cause of high stress levels in family members. My own husband committed suicide last year and this issue was part of the problem. Succession planning in other countries is more widespread – why is that?

As a result of my research I hope to create a pilot project for training succession planning advisors in Devon and to develop workshops for farming families to encourage them to start the process. This will help to reduce stress in families and build resilience in rural businesses.