Richard Lochhead, Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, yesterday relaunched the Whole Farm Review Scheme that helps farmers identify how best to maximise their business potential.

The £1.5m scheme offers increased grants, less paperwork and greater flexibility than its predecessor.

For the vast majority of farmers who have put their business to the review test, the experience has resulted in improvement. A favourable evaluation last year concluded that the scheme represented good value for money and had helped many businesses to become more profitable and sustainable, although uptake remained disappointing.

In an effort to make the scheme more attractive, it has now been relaunched with some key changes that include an increase in grant levels, a reduction in paperwork and form filling and increased flexibility when reviewing businesses.

Overall, the scheme provides an eligible farmer with up to £2400 (an increase of £550 on the previous grant rates) towards the cost of improving the performance of the business.

Grants are payable in three stages: 80% of the cost (up to a maximum of £1600, an increase of £400) of the review; 100% of the cost (up to £300 - an increase of £50) for the review of the action plan; 80% of the cost (up to £500 - an increase of £100) for further specialist advice.

Applications will be considered on a first-come, first- served basis, up to the limit of the budget available in any year.

The scheme provides a review of recent performance (financial and environmental), a review of the skills available to, and needed by, the business, and identifies key strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities.

It then considers the options to improve overall performance and develops an action plan to achieve the identified improvements. That is followed up by a return visit by the adviser to review progress and provide further advice as necessary. There is also an optional additional grant towards further specialist advice identified in the action plan.

Lochhead said: "Farming is increasingly market-led and to ensure a healthy future, farm businesses must be equipped and ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

"With the Scotland Rural Development Plan now in place and new opportunities beckoning, the Whole Farm Review Scheme can provide a platform for making big decisions about the future.

"Only last month, an Angus farmer told us that his farm had been in a bad way - losing money and financially unsustainable - until a Whole Farm Review helped to identify the real problems, allowing him to reduce costs and chart a way forward."

He added: "This is just one of many cases where farmers have reaped significant benefits from a review, and I'd recommend others to follow his example."