Farmer-led Groups

The North Wessex Downs National Landscape Partnership has supported various farmer-led groups. We have provided financial support and resources to help establish several groups and to support the on-going efforts of those groups. We are proud to be associated with them and to provide our on-going support.

What are Farmer-led Groups

Farmer-led Groups, some of which are known as Farmer Clusters, are an initiative with some of its foundations within the North Wessex Downs. This bottom-up approach is driven by a group of farmers in a particular landscape such as a river catchment or along a ridge of chalk downland and together they seek to tackle different environmental challenges such as water quality, the historic environment or particular species such as grey partridge. At scale across a landscape, these farmers can be impactful as well as reinforcing community ties across farm boundaries.

The Marlborough Downs Partnership was originally setup in 2011 as a farmer-led Nature Improvement Area. It endures to this day having achieved significant changes to the landscape and engagement with local communities.

In the spirit of the Marlborough Downs group, the North Wessex Downs now contains twelve different farmer-led groups or clusters. We have provided resources to support the establishment and development of a number of these farmer groups to help deliver environment-friendly farming at a landscape scale. Some of these groups are supported via the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund,via Farming in Protected Landscapes, from other sources including other Partnership funding, or are privately funded by the members themselves, or a blended approach.