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This research initially discovered that, in response to reduced farm incomes from reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in the 1990's, a significant number of farm diversifications were being established by women, but these women were coming up against a number of barriers. A direct consequence of this research was the establishment of WiRE to promote, support and develop rural business women. A survey in 2010 of 334 of the 1,300 subscribing WiRE business members indicated that they generated in direct income nearly £35.3 million annually. Also during 2010 WiRE trained 117 business start-ups with a cumulative projected turnover, within two years, of £1m.
Research led by Midmore over the past two decades has improved understanding of the impact of external pressures on hill and upland farming systems, and consequent effects on the wider social, demographic and environmental context in which they are set. This provided evidence for improved agricultural and agri-environmental policymaking, of particular usefulness in the context of a newly devolved administration, and also stimulated the development of practical initiatives involving individual farm and non-farm beneficiaries, recreational visitors and eco-tourists, and other stakeholder beneficiaries. It helped to counteract adverse economic trends, and heightened public awareness of the interdependence of cultural assets, recreational potential and natural beauty with agricultural methods to achieve a sustainable hill and upland economy and society.
The Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) has undertaken research providing a sustained contribution to understanding beneficiary-focused EU and UK rural development (RD) policies. This used novel, context-sensitive and mixed-method evaluation techniques to capture complex, systemic impacts and diagnose causal linkages between design and delivery, and policy performance. In so doing it has generated direct impacts in improved RD policy making and evaluation. The research has influenced restructuring in EU policy frameworks for RD and changed England's upland policy. By increasing policymakers' understanding of farm-level behaviours and responses to agri-environmental policy goals, CCRI's research has stimulated better-communicated and integrated advisory approaches.
The case study developed a set of acceptable benchmarks of economic performance using readily available data which are indicative of key policy-relevant facets of local economic performance, and it proposed a method for modelling rural economic performance, which is transferable to other UK environments and beyond. In doing so, this study has informed Defra's `Rural Evidence Base', and has contributed to the development of subsequent rural policy. This impact case study is based on a Defra award (2003-2004 plus a nine month extension) led by the Director of SERC Professor Sheela Agarwal.
This case study describes how research undertaken by Sophia Davidova and Alistair Bailey contributed to raising the issue of the welfare of small farmers in Europe onto the EU policy agenda. The impact of their research is clearly reflected in papers and legislative proposals produced by the European Commission. As a result of the research, the European Commission was able to identify clearly the policy target group and to propose a simplified post-2013 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) flat-rate payment scheme to small and semi-subsistence farmers, which was debated and approved by the EU Council and Parliament in June 2013. The impact has been international in reach and has led to significant policy change for EU subsistence farmers.
The direct beneficiaries of the research have been agricultural policy makers in the European Commission. The indirect beneficiaries are the 11 million small farmers who, within the CAP for the period 2013-2020, will enjoy a simplified flat-rate payment scheme for support.
Achieving self-sufficiency in food production is a priority of the Malawi government. To this end, from 2005 the country has implemented a countrywide programme, costing at its peak over US$270 million and 16% of the national budget, to subsidize smallholder farmers' access to high-quality seed and fertilizer. Professor Andrew Dorward's research from 2007 to the present on the implementation and impact of the programme has assisted a range of stakeholders including the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, international funders and national NGOs and Civil Society Organisations in making decisions and changing policies to improve its efficacy and effectiveness.
In the late 1990s the new Welsh Assembly Government publicly acknowledged a significant evidence gap in relation to rural policy. A Cardiff University team of rural researchers led by Terry Marsden and Paul Milbourne has since played a significant role in filling this gap. A major programme of longitudinal and place-based research has revealed the need for a more integrated approach to rural policy development. Key findings from this research have been used by the Welsh Government to develop more sustainable and integrated forms of rural policy, particularly in relation to anti-poverty and agri-food strategy. The research evidence has also influenced policy debates in the UK on agri-food, as well as negotiations between the Welsh Government and European Commission in relation to European objectives for rural development.
The Crofting Reform Act 2010 and Scottish Government's Policy Statement on Crofting 2008 implemented the main recommendations of the report of the Committee of Inquiry on the Future of Crofting, chaired by Professor Mark Shucksmith. The Inquiry itself was an example of a co-production approach to the generation of knowledge for legal and policy application. The report, in turn, was informed: by work of CRE researchers at Newcastle University in the 1990s and 2000s on "neo-endogenous rural development"; by theories and studies of "collaborative planning" developed by planning researchers in Newcastle University; and by Shucksmith's work, often synthesising the two, from 2005. This body of research informed a major overhaul of crofting legislation and governance in Scotland aimed at reversing the decline of crofting as a social practice with major territorial effects, and is actively debated in other countries as an appropriate approach to rural development.
Research needs to engage with global environmental challenges more effectively. How to achieve this has been the focus of studies by academics at Newcastle with their expertise recognised in the appointment in 2003 of Philip Lowe and Jeremy Phillipson to lead the £26million Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (Relu), funded by three Research Councils, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Scottish Government. The Directorship allowed Lowe and Phillipson to experiment with innovative processes for the conduct of research in 94 projects funded under the programme, in particular through instigating ideas of interdisciplinarity and co-production, and to develop techniques for assessing the efficacy of such methods. The insights gained from this effort have had significant and widespread impact on science policy and on organisations responses to environmental challenges such as government departments and agencies (DEFRA, Scottish Office and Food Standards Agency, for example), PLCs (including Wessex Water and M&S), environmental Trusts and more.
Impact: Policy and economic: Introduction of the concept of High Nature-Value (HNV) Farming and embedding this into EU Rural Development Policy: Guidelines and policy options for exploiting the concept have been refined such that the EC has incorporated the care of HNV into legislation and Rural Development planning.
Significance: HNV farming recognises that sustaining or enhancing biodiversity is a central feature of the management of rural areas.
Attribution: Prof. McCracken (SRUC)
Beneficiaries: Policy makers in all Member States of the EU.
Reach: All EU member states. It is estimated that HNV farming systems are being practiced on 30% (i.e. 52 million ha) of EU agricultural land.