Quantifying 'Ag of the middle' in the North Highlands of Scotland

‘Ag of the middle’ (AOTM) producers are small to medium sized producers that supply food to farmer's markets, but which are not large enough to be part of the global food system. To achieve an agricultural transition to more sustainable and regenerative farming practises, intensive farming systems need to change. Developing AOTM may offer the potential to carry out regenerative agriculture at scales that can supply local tourism outlets (hotels & restaurants), local shops and supermarkets with produce from more local sources.

In a joint project between SEFARI Gateway, FFCC, NHI, SCF and SAOS, the "Quantifying 'Ag of the middle' in the North Highlands of Scotland" research project plans to evaluate the ways that crofts and small to medium sized farms and their markets can become more resilient through playing to their strengths – whether this is increasing their food outputs, increasing the quality of their produce to de-commoditise their output, economies of scope & scale and routes to local and regional markets.

We plan to survey crofters to identify which crops have potential for regenerative farming practices and which barriers are constraining that potential. We also plan to create a map of Scotland using Bayesian Networks where we identity which areas have more potential to grow crops that are amenable to the use of regenerative farming practices, This map will serve as a decision tool to crofters to decide which crops to cultivate when they want to maximise the ecological score of the farm and at the same time the farm's income.