Farming: Whole Farm Approach - Background
The Whole Farm Approach has been developed with the farming industry, the wider Defra network (including Environment Agency, Rural Payments Agency) and other regulators including Food Standards Agency and the Health and Safety Executive. It is one of several initiatives that see a long term integration in delivering Defra's Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food.
Developed as an electronic only system, it uses an “intelligent” questionnaire system which makes form filling easier and provides convenient links to best practice advice and guidance.
The Whole Farm Approach is a long-term programme of major strategic importance to Defra and its partners. It also supports a number of Government strategies for improving rural service delivery and government efficiency.
It will develop new online services for farmers and growers each year, providing an integral access point to Defra and its partners with the aim of ‘Helping to take the paperwork out of farming’.
The first major release of the live service took place in March 2006, and was followed by further releases in 2007 and 2008. More features and improvements are scheduled to take place in November, these are:
- An improved and enhanced December Agriculture and Horticulture Survey
- An invitation for large scale pig producers to complete the December Pig Survey
To date, over 12,500 farmers have signed-up to use the services available on the system.
Customer facing elements
Farmers signing up to use the Whole Farm Approach will see a personalised Whole Farm Approach web page, electronic farm assessments and surveys, searchable advice and guidance and a calendar of key events and deadlines. Users can also sign-up to receive important farming news and information direct to their email account.
The personalised web page also provides a range of useful links to relevant websites such as Farm Business Benchmarking and CTS Online, plus background information on Whole Farm Approach.
The "Appraisal" includes a number of electronic self-assessment questionnaires that seek information on the user's current activities; it also seeks information on some of the wider aspects of farming, for example health and safety. It is a convenient place to keep all the core data about a farm and it helps to raise awareness of the range of current and planned legislation that may affect the farming industry.
The "Appraisal" may be accessed either online or by using the Whole Farm Approach CD that is provided with the registration pack.
Page last modified: 30 October 2008
Page published: 7 November 2006