Agricultural & Rural Development

The Falkland Islands continues to support the development of new processes and products to add value to agricultural production. Efforts continue to encourage the diversification of the Camp (countryside) economy away from dependence solely on wool incomes and into additional activities such as meat production.

The Islands have been pursuing genetic and pasture improvement programmes since the early 1990s in order to develop and support dual purpose (wool and meat) sheep breeds, to reduce wool fibre diameter (micron) and to increase productivity through increasing reproductive rates and decreasing mortality. The Islands are now exporting lamb across the world and supply the domestic market with beef products. Overall agricultural output increased by 50% in 2011 alone.

The Rural Development Strategy has been designed to address the needs of Camp over a five year period (2012-2017), and is currently being updated. The strategy provides a route map for the future development of Camp, identifying the policies required to achieve sustainable growth. The annual Action Plan contains details on projects and budgets which will be delivered to achieve the strategic objectives.