Realizing Capital Assets: An Additional Strand to the Farm Diversification Debate

Faced with a crisis in the mid 1980s, farmers were encouraged by policy makers to diversify their activities in order to survive. Evidence has suggested that this response was not as widely adopted as anticipated. This paper argues that farmers may have adopted a different adjustment strategy whereby they sought to capitalize their assets which often brought them into play with the planning system. This paper explores the extent to which farmers appear to be adopting this strategy and the response of planners in two rural districts of South Shropshire and the Malvern Hills. Furthermore it goes on to suggest that if there is a desire to truly diversify the rural economy as opposed to merely farming, planners may have to adopt a mre relaxed approach to non residential development proposals from farmers.