Joining forces in farming for better outcomes isn’t a new idea. Farming co-operatives and other forms of mutualisation have been around in the UK since at least the 19th century. But what about farm partnerships? While tenant and contract farming are again, nothing new, the idea of sharing land, labour and crucially, risk, in the agricultural sector is gaining traction.

Abunda are at the very forefront of this development, calling themselves the “the world’s first holistic Land Matching service.” We sat down with founders Harry Epsom and Fred Lean Hansen to find out more about what they do – and why it’s so needed right now.

“Abunda is effectively a land matching platform,” says Fred. “We connect landholders with landseekers and support them to establish successful, long-term farm partnerships. In many cases this means going from something that resembles a monoculture, or single enterprise, to a much more diversified business that’s more ecologically and economically sound. For that to succeed, it is crucial to get the right people and skills on board for the long haul, and farm partnerships really provide that incentive and foundation for a long-term relationship.”

The first problem is that people “have a hard time finding each other” – so Abunda helps connect people who can mutually benefit from each other’s resources, skills and time. The second problem that Abunda aims to solve is something relatively obvious, and yet isn’t much spoken about. Put simply that “people don’t always get along.”

When it comes to farm partnerships and working collaboratively in agriculture, Fred says that the “personality side of things hasn’t had enough focus.” For a partnership to be successful, we need to ask some basic questions, such as “Are we on the same page? Have we aligned our expectations? Do we have the same values? We might not be 100% aligned on everything, but is the overlap big enough that we can work with each other?”

Harry Epsom and Fred Lean Hansen, co-founders of Abunda © Abunda

This is perhaps where Abunda really sets itself apart – recognising that empathy, compassion and mutual understanding are vital in a sector where work is often hard, underpaid and at the mercy of uncontrollable forces like climate change and changing weather.

Harry and Fred’s third team member is Hedie Nazari, a qualified occupational therapist and Abunda’s psychology lead. She leads the human dimension of the work they do, supporting healthy farming partnerships through a deep understanding of behavioural patterns, mediation and dispute mitigation. “We used to call Hedie our secret weapon, because before she became a firm part of the team, she was mentoring us on psychology and dispute mitigation in the background. Today she is essential to our offering and definitely nowhere near a secret”, Fred says with a smile.

For Harry, “The most complicated part of farming is the people. It all comes back down to human relationships. Why does a partnership fail? Because of the people. Why does it succeed? Because of the people.”

This aspect of Abunda speaks to one of their wider aims, to help create good jobs and livelihoods in a sector where many – particularly those running small and medium sized farm businesses – are struggling to stay afloat. Earlier this year, we published a report showing that farmers’ incomes have barely improved in real terms for 50 years, with multinational corporations now dominating the industry and leaving farmers with little power in supply chains.

Fred adds that “farmers are really lonely. There are huge mental health issues and suicide rates are high. And part of this is that there are very high expectations on the skillsets of a farmer. You need to be an accountant, a businessperson, an entrepreneur, a salesperson, a mechanic, a biologist – the list goes on. More and more, we’re talking about the need to diversify farm businesses – which is a good thing – but how can we expect anyone one to know all of that?”

Landmatching happening in action. © Abunda

For Harry and Fred, it all comes back to diversity. Abunda’s model is about diversifying the people-power behind economically and ecologically diverse farm businesses to help them become thriving and resilient forces for change.

“I think that UK farming is at perhaps the biggest crossroads since the Second World War” says Fred. “If you are farming in ‘conventional’ high-input systems right now, you are likely farming on borrowed time, especially if you’re running a single enterprise, where you can’t determine the sales price of your produce. That's a big economic risk.”

But they’re keen to avoid the blame game when it comes to conventional farming and resulting damage to the environment – and instead highlight the human and social cost of all of this. “It's not as if there's a blame to be had.” says Harry. “It's not a single person. It’s a system issue that’s been compounded for 40, 50 plus years. And with the rise in agrochemicals and fertilisers, we’ve seen fewer people on farms. 1000 acres is now farmed by one person – and that is so problematic because you’ve taken people away from both the land and rural communities – and there’s now a lot of loneliness and less awareness to natural systems among the public.”

Harry also points to UK agriculture’s stagnant productivity: “our productivity in farming in the UK has effectively flatlined in the last 20–25 years, which is quite staggering given the cost [to climate and nature]. We're not producing any more food, the cost of food is going up, and farmers are often not making any money. So, there's something fundamentally wrong.”

Instead, Fred says, “we need more people – motivated, skilled people – on the land with long term incentives. We need to look after our land better. With healthy soil which comes regulation of ecosystems and climate, and alongside multiple diverse enterprises on the land, it adds up to higher productivity.”

The pair also want to break down some the perceived divides in the agricultural community between conventional and more regenerative farming systems. As Harry says, “I don’t think any landowner or farmer is thinking ‘I want my land trashed’. They might think ‘I can’t afford to change my system because economics comes first, because I need to food on the table.’”

That’s where Abunda comes in. Farm partnerships have real potential to inject “new energy and ideas onto a farm and thinking outside the box” – while also sharing the load of any potential risks involved in changing on-farm practices. Similarly, farm partnerships can be transformational for younger generations of farmers looking to get a foot in the door – enabling more experienced farmers to offer “practical mentoring, support and resources” to those who need it.

Harry, Fred and Hedie at Groundswell Festival. © Abunda

This kind of network building and collaboration is central to Abunda’s business model (all their farm planning tools are shared open source, for example) – and for them, this is how we get to a better future for farming. “People shouldn’t have to re-invent the wheel all the time. We share our farm enterprise planning templates and other resources freely for anyone to copy, adjust and hopefully share back to us with their own improvements.”

Both are also big fans of initiatives like Emergent Generation – a diverse network of young people working in food and farming towards an agroecological and regenerative future. While Fred is now unfortunately too old to join, Harry is an active member. For him, “Emergent Generation is such an incredible movement because they’re bringing people into a space where they can speak freely. And we're not only talking about farmers – if you're interested in anything to do with food and land, come along and you’ll have a voice.”

Harry adds “that judgemental ‘right or wrong’ ideology is often present in farming – but that’s something I’ve never experienced at Emergent Generation. It's a free space where everyone has a valid opinion. They’re big advocates of agroecological farming, but they’re also cautious not to shoot people down who apply other farming practices because they have a business that they need to make work. And I love that.”

So, what’s next for Abunda? At the moment, they’re focusing on growing the business, helping people from across the farming sector to ‘find their match’ – and ultimately connecting people to help accelerate the transition towards more sustainable, resilient way of doing things. For Abunda, every partnership aims to demonstrate that the future of food and farming doesn’t need to be siloed or solitary – it can and should be shared.