As part of ongoing work by the NFU’s Next Generation Forum, member Robert Raven talks about diversification – and where the group itself is headed.
He writes:
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Our most recent visit was in Kent, hosted by one of our members, Alan Clifton of AA Clifton Ltd. The business combines highly productive and innovative arable agriculture with an astonishing range of diversification projects, ranging from large-scale renewable energy to maize mazes, retail units, industrial estates and even a flock of alpacas, which produce fibre enough to make AA Clifton Ltd the largest sock-seller on Amazon!
We were all impressed by the professionalism with which the business is managed and how each partner occupies a distinct role, allowing the business to develop in several directions at once. We are very grateful to Alan and his family for their time and generosity and wish them good fortune in their future enterprises.
It was onto more official business next for our meeting - the first since our paper on what the UK agriculture sector requires going forward was presented to NFU Policy Board. As this represented the end of a large project, the meeting focused on choosing a direction for future of the forum and there were plenty of ideas and we can all look forward to some constructive work in the months ahead.
We were also joined by representatives from the YFC - both the NFU and the YFC are keen to work more closely with each other. From now on the NFU Next Generation Forum and the YFC steering committee have agreed to attend each other’s meetings and improve dialogue so that the two organisations can work together towards common goals wherever possible. This is, of course, fantastic news and we hope the start of a very productive relationship.
It was an enjoyable and constructive occasion and our thanks go to AA Clifton Ltd and the NFU’s Lucia Zitti for making it happen.