The 3rd Irish steering group meeting brought together the steering group in Portlaoise to discuss progress on the Newbie project and the plan for the coming year. The steering group is comprised of farm advisors, researchers, farming organisation representatives, financial personnel and recent new entrants to farming.
The main objectives of the meeting were to;
- Review the actions taken in 2019
- Plan the actions to be taken in 2020
- Hold a focus group to discuss, practice abstract topics and toolkits
This event was an excellent opportunity to establish how best to implement the goals of NEWBIE in the Irish situation. Feedback from the attendees will have a major influence on the design and timing of activities carried out in 2020, for example, the new entrant competition.
Section 2 of the meeting comprised of a focus group where participants were asked to brainstorm, discuss and nominate topics, of interest to new entrants, on which practice abstracts could be completed. The nominated topics included examples such as collaborative farming measures, support structures for new entrants and taxation incentives available to encourage farm succession.
A second focus group worked to establish potential topics on which to develop NEWBIE toolkits. The discussion centred on identifying areas/topics not currently catered for by existing tools and potential tools to fill this void. Suggestions included videos and infographics to make information widely available to new entrants, especially those without a farming background.
