Elveden Estate Farm Manager, Lindsay Hargreaves describes his spring 2009 MBA-style short management course at Cranfield University as “life changing”. He financed his studies with help from four sources, three of which are charities involved in the AFCP movement. Lindsay’s fellow participants at Cranfield came from Europe, Middle East, USA and Africa and from sectors including banking and financial services, manufacturing, training, and education and government departments.

Funding sources

While already managing 10,000 acres in Suffolkfor the the Rt Hon Earl of Iveagh, Lindsay wished to further broaden his horizons, and not necessarily within the confines of agriculture. As a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Farmers (WCF) and encouraged by Past Master, Tom Copas, Lindsay applied successfully for the Cranfield short course.

Through the WCF Lindsay was then able to tune into the network of organisations funding education and research in food and agriculture, which is now gradually being built into a more formal, yet still flexible, one stop shop for science and education funding - The Agrifood Charities Partnership (AFCP). Lindsay won further funding from The Felix Cobbold Trust, the Chadacre Trust and finally from East of England Development Agency’s Land Skills Trust.

“Lindsay is an excellent example of what can be achieved when a candidate can identify potential funding sources and combine what are often scarce resources to fund a research or education project,” says AFCP Chairman, Eric Wilson. “Our aim with AFCP is to make this process simpler and more effective. Our web site provides those seeking funding with a list of potential funding sources. Equally, by bringing charities together we can fund bigger projects, foster co-operation and best practice, and influence research and education policy and strategy,” he said.

Lindsay Hargreaves writes: “In March this year I completed the first and major part of the Cranfield General Management Programme with generous support from The Worshipful Company of Farmers, The Felix Cobbold Trust, The Chadacre Trust and EEDA, Land Skills and also my employers, the Elveden Estate. This first section involved a residential course of twelve consecutive days of lectures, case study and personal skills development, based at the School of Management at Cranfield. I was one of a group of 18 participants drawn from a wide range of organisations including banking and financial services, manufacturing, training, education and government departments. There was a strong cultural and international flavour with people from as far afield as Africa, the Middle East and the USA as well as European nationals. The one thing we held in common was having senior management roles in organisational structures.

“At the end of the twelve days we had each drawn up a personal plan to guide us to achieving the goals we had set ourselves, progress to be analysed when the group reconvenes in June 2009 and again in March 2010. The ongoing nature of the programme aims to establish how we have developed as individuals and to asses whether changes we have made are long term or transient.

How to be more effective in life and business

“The course lived up to its promise to be ‘hard work’ and ‘stretching’ and I have no doubt that the knowledge gained from exposure to the skills and expertise of the business specialists at Cranfield will deliver benefits not only to me directly, but also to the various organisations I am involved with in my daily life.

“It is something of a cliché to describe programmes like this one as ‘life changing’, but I challenge anyone who has been through the experience to deny that they had not learned a great deal about themselves and how they could strive to be more effective in life and business,” he said.

The Worshipful Company of Farmers, The Felix Thornley Cobbold Trust and the Chadacre Trust are all members of AFCP.