All businesses need to innovate if they are to thrive, and family farms are no exception. By thinking ahead and developing new approaches, farmers can increase output, develop new and improved products, diversify and tap into new income streams, and remain environmentally sustainable. Innovative farms are more likely to weather storms, be they economic or meteorological.

As family farms - of all sizes - look to meet the business challenge of globalisation and the economic crisis and the environmental challenge of delivering sustainable growth and preserving biodiversity, agricultural innovation is arguably more crucial than ever. In the European Union (EU), the vast majority of farm holdings can be categorised as family farms: meaning that they are on the one hand synonymous with small-scale holdings and on the other dominant in the highest farm size classification - 60% of which are run by families. While there is excellent agricultural-related research happening in Europe, there is now a concerted effort to ensure that the gap between research results and the diverse requirements of farming systems is reduced. The innovation priority in Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) for 2014-2020 will be to ensure that ground-breaking new ideas do not go unnoticed and that knowledge-exchange is used as a tool in overcoming emerging challenges.