Balanced Horizon, in partnership with East Lothian Climate Hub, is taking on the role of local facilitator for a new national programme called ‘Farm Cluster Connections’. This national programme, funded by the Scottish Government, is being led by Propagate (Scotland), a not-for-profit organisation that has been working with farmers and landowners across Scotland over recent years. The purpose of this project is to strengthen farmer-led learning networks across Scotland and accelerate the exchange of practical knowledge about nature-friendly and regenerative agriculture.
Eight regional farmer clusters are being established across Scotland, each supported by a local facilitator to help coordinate activities tailored to local priorities. As one of the eight, we have proposed to establish ‘Future Farming East Lothian’ (FFEL). FFEL aims to build a network of local farmers, land managers, landowners and associated professionals that looks to support farming businesses in a policy climate that is shifting towards increasing support for biodiversity and a physical climate that brings warmer temperatures and more viable rainfall patterns.
Planned activities are likely to include farm walks, on-farm demonstrations, online discussions, webinars and other learning opportunities focused on topics like soil health, rotational grazing, enhancing biodiversity, and improving resilience and profitability. The project also includes national communications and resources – such as newsletters, podcasts (e.g., Voices of Farmers), webinars, and a national gathering.
Government policies to support farm clusters have been implemented across England and Wales. They have become well-established and, as locally-led groups, they are growing rapidly. Their popularity is, to some degree, a result of improved local communication and knowledge sharing and offers a way to deal with delivering landscape-scale outcomes. More specifically the key benefits for members of cluster farming groups include:
1. Enhanced Local Communication
Clusters create on-going opportunities for farmers to connect, share experiences, ask questions and discuss challenges. This helps break down isolation that can occur when farmers work alone.
2. Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Sharing
Farmers have the opportunity to learn not just from ‘invited experts’ but from each other’s real experience — what worked, what didn’t, and why. Hands-on activities like farm walks and demonstrations can make ideas more tangible and reduce perceived risks around initiating projects.
3. Building Trust & Community
Clusters foster trust because they are farmer-led and rooted in local needs rather than being prescriptive and imposed from top-down. This tends to lead to stronger support networks and more open exchange which is critical when adopting new practices.
4. Shared Problem Solving at Landscape Scale
Collaboration enables farmers to tackle challenges that go beyond the boundaries of individual farms—such as water management issues, biodiversity enhancements, or invasive species — by aligning actions and sharing solutions. It also enables multi-farm approaches towards funding and finance opportunities leading to stronger applications that are likely to be more successful.
5. Faster Uptake of Innovations
Through collaborative demonstration projects, farmers can evaluate new approaches more quickly and with greater confidence, speeding up the adoption of new practices.
6. Strengthening Links between Local and National Policy
A cluster based network enables local best practices to be communicated widely helping to shape national policy discussions and influence broader agricultural trends.
In East Lothian our launch event for FFEL will be on Wednesday 28th January 2026. This first event will be a chance to hear about the challenges that local farmers and land managers face and what themes you would like to FFEL focus on to make it as valuable as possible for farming businesses across the county. For more details and registration please go to https://www.tickettailor.com/events/eastlothianclimatehub1/1991392