Bicycles and Birmingham: Farm Africa at the NFU Conference 2014

27 February 2014

It’s late February, and that can only mean one thing at Farm Africa: time to head up to Birmingham for the UK farming community’s yearly get-together.

The annual conference of the National Farmers Union (NFU) brings together farmers from right across the UK, some of the biggest players in the UK food industry, government ministers and a phalanx of journalists reporting on everything from flooding to biotechnology via cheese and tractors. It’s the sort of place where pinstriped executives argue the agricultural toss with farmers in tweeds, all under the watchful gaze of the colourful food critic, Jay Rayner.

And, of course, Farm Africa’s there too. It’s an unrivalled opportunity to thank both the UK farmers who continually go the extra mile to support our work, and the NFU which has been at the heart of the farming community’s fundraising for Farm Africa for many years now.

So I’ve just spent an exhilarating two days with my colleagues at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre, chatting to journalists over a bacon sarnie and meeting some of our many incredible supporters in the UK farming community. Oh, and gawping at one of Jay Rayner’s trademark floral shirts.

Much of the talk, naturally, is about flooding (with much of the UK’s farmland having been under water for weeks) and the government’s response. So it’s inspiring to sense that, amidst all this jostling agricultural ferment, UK farmers’ support for Farm Africa - and the work we are doing to lift African smallholders out of hunger and poverty - is as strong as ever.

And what better proof of that support than outgoing NFU President Peter Kendall donning some lycra and a Farm Africa t-shirt before cycling onto the stage in the main hall for a press photo call? It has to be one of Peter’s more colourful moments in eight conferences as President. And it certainly helped kick off a major fundraising cycle ride he will undertake in June in the UK with Richard Whitlock, who next year will chair the Oxford Farming Conference for the first time.

Pushing off in Skelmersdale, West Lancashire, the pedalling pair will clock up an impressive one thousand miles in just 11 days as they wheel their way through just about every conceivable corner of England and Wales. The best news is that they are hoping to raise sponsorship from their contacts in the food and farming industries to raise thousands of pounds in the process for Farm Africa and three other UK farming charities.

And as my train shoots back to London through rolling Buckinghamshire farmland, I marvel at the generosity of UK farmers who continue to support African farmers they’ve never met. And all while they grapple with some of the wettest weather on record.

Matt Whitticase, Senior Communications Officer, Farm Africa