Agriculture and the Armed Forces: Growing Social Value in British Agriculture

• Forces Farming represent the link between agriculture and the armed forces are offering a bridge for veterans and service leavers who want to pursue a career in agriculture or the associated industries.

AGCO UK have supported Forces Farming for the past 12 months to create the ReTrain Career Pathway for armed forces engineers. Service leavers are being connected directly to the dealer network. This leads onto an informal interview for both the service leaver and potential employer. Forces Farming supports a company or business investment in their Social Value through Armed Forces Engagement initiatives.

Forces into Agriculture Community Interest Company has been launched to support wider sector initiatives that help more people access agriculture as a career choice. Founder Jeremy Gibbs explained that Forces into Agriculture is not for profit; “This is where we grow Social Value and can launch sector specific initiatives that add value to the industry and make a difference to someone’s life.” The CIC is where employability skills and training is delivered.

The mission statement of Forces into Agriculture CIC is to ‘improve the lives of those affected by service while adding value to the agricultural industry through access to land. We are looking forward to launching an exciting engineering focussed initiative in January 2023.