Falling product prices during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s caused many farmers to contemplate supplementing their incomes from other sources. One avenue followed by many was to diversify out of farming by establishing non-agricultural enterprises on their holdings. In 1988, to lend encouragement to this development, the Government introduced the Farm Diversification Grant Scheme (FDGS) as part of the ALURE (Alternative Land Use and Rural Economy) package of measures. From the late 1980s ithas been a Government requirement that all new policies which entail public expenditure should be subject to periodic evaluation to determine whether the objectives of particular schemes are being achieved. This article reports some of the findings of an evaluation of the FDGS which was undertaken on behalf of MAFF by Wye College and CEAS Consultants.
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