North Yorkshire's struggling farming community is being given a new lifeline through new scheme which hopes to see £21m injected into the industry in the next five years.

Masterminded by the North Yorkshire County Council and partners Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, and Business Link, the project is unique to the county, says Nick White, the lead officer in the Single Regeneration Budget initiative.

"The overall objective is to help the farming industry make changes. Many were needed before the outbreak of foot and mouth disease but today it is even more prevalent."

He is helping farmers to access other sources of funding for diversification projects other than tourism, and to add value to the farming enterprises.

Business Link is providing funding for two new business advisers for the county.

"We aim to looking at a wide range of potential schemes ancilliary to farming and setting-up networks."

Mr White cites the successful Northern Dales Meat Initiative which now has 220 farmers involved, as an example.

Helping to set up farmers' markets and putting them in contact with meat processors are also seen as ideal opportunities to aid the agricultural industry which has been decimated by foot and mouth disease and BSE as well as the strong pound in Europe.

Funding of up to 100pc could be available in some cases, said Mr White, and other aid from the European Union and Leader Plus is also being targeted together with match funding.

One major asset many farmers have is redundnant and obsolete buildings, said Mr White, and these can become beneficial to their businesses. The Rural Building Development Fund can help with feasibility, business and project plans.

"We want to improve the economic activity in rural areas," said Mr White.

Some £7m has been made available for the new scheme which is anticipated to bring in other funding to boost the investment to £21m.

Already 15 projects have been brought forward, of which ten have been approved.

Financing feasibility studies which are seen as 'basic building blocks' are high on the agenda of Mr White's department.

"Such things as improving the marketing of beef cattle and sheep in Upper Wensleydale and developing the potential of the poultry industry in the Vale of York are among the schemes we want to encourage as well as looking at areas which have not had aid in the past."

The scheme can also help another struggling rural industry - coastal sea fishing. Link officers are to be based in each of North Yorkshire's seven districts - Ryedale, Scarborough, Craven, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Selby and Harrogate.

"The objective is to make the farming industry self-sustaining in the long-term. More farmers are looking to diversify and those who have suffered from FMD are looking at other opportunities."

In some cases, capital tied up in farming enterprises could be released for other business opportunities, but those who want to continue in the industry can be helped, said Mr White.

"The average age of farmers in North Yorkshire is now 58 and some feel it is going to take so long for farming to recover that they need to look for other opportunities, especially if there is no other member of the family to contine the business. It takes at least a year to get out of farming and there are forecasts of more sales of farms."

While the public have been supportive of farming by buying home produce, a priority must be to win back the lost export market but this will take some time, believes Mr White.

Based at the county authority's offices in South Parade, Northallerton, Mr White farmed in Northumberland for 30 years before deciding to make a change in his career and taking a course at the University of Durham where he achieved a Masters' degree in business administration. He later joined Business Link and is now the county council's agricultural development officer working with a potential 8000 farmers.

Updated: 09:18 Thursday, September 27, 2001