Land matchers bring together owners and growers

12 hours ago

Christine ButlerCornwall

News image — Alice Kennish was seeking land to rent to launch her cut flower business

BBC A woman is bending down cutting flowers in a garden. There are losts of pink Echinacea with bees sitting on top of them. The woman is wearing jeans with a white and black striped top and has her hair tied up on top of her head — Alice Kennish was seeking land to rent to launch her cut flower business

A pilot scheme to partner up landowners who have spare land with people who want to start up food and farming businesses has been launched in Cornwall.

Tamar Grow Local has been working towards the project for two years and is now running the scheme with national partners to provide a farming service throughout the UK.

There have been 200 registrations, three successful land matches and another 15 in discussion working towards and agreement to set up on various sites, organisers said.

Rachael Forster, co-ordinator of Landmatch England, said: "It works within the nature friendly, regenerative sector and to support new entrants into starting new farming enterprises."

Woman smiling at the camera, she has long ash blonde hair and blue eyes — Elinor Willcocks said finding her new tenant was "the perfect fit"

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Elinor Willcocks was one such farmer who had spare land after she and her partner moved to North Wales.

In 2022, she created a small market garden on land at her family farm at St Erney, which is still a working beef farm.

She land-matched with Alice Kennish who was seeking land and has now become Willcocks' new tenant.

"We made a sort of advert for the garden and the day it was posted Alice also posted her advert for her land seeker application and we just thought we were the perfect fit," said Willcocks.

Alice Kennish - a woman smiling at the camera. She has a mass of light brown hair tied up on her head. — Alice Kennish said: "I worked really really hard. It's been a huge undertaking"

Alice Kennish rents the land to pursue her cut flower business and, although starting in April, the ground is vibrant and full of colour with hundreds of seeds waiting in the wings to be planted.

She said: "I worked really, really hard. It's been a huge undertaking.

"But I knew I wanted flowers this season, because this is how I make my living.

"If I don't grow the thing to sell the thing, I don't make any money, I can't pay my rent.

"There's a lot you need to do in the beginning to get the volume in order for me to sell it."

Forster said: "We support with business planning, we support though facilitating matches, from first meetings and introductions, right through to the start of creating a lease for a new farming business."

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