The addition brings AI powered farm data tools to the association's UK grower network.

The British Growers Association has welcomed Live Farmer as the latest partner to join its Partnership Scheme, strengthening its network of organisations supporting UK horticulture. Terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.

British Growers Association is a grower owned, grower led, not for profit umbrella body based in Louth, Lincolnshire, representing Crop Associations, Producer Organisations and marketing groups across a sector employing over 100,000 workers and contributing more than £3 billion to UK GDP. It does not publicly report turnover or EBITDA.

Live Farmer is a cloud based farm management platform developed by First Base Solutions Ltd, led by director Steve Bradstock, serving the UK fresh produce sector with tools covering traceability, cost tracking and compliance reporting. Financial details are not publicly disclosed.

Advisors: None mentioned.

The partnership answers a structural problem in UK horticulture rather than a passing trend.

Post-Brexit labour constraints have pushed UK fresh vegetable self-sufficiency to 53 per cent, its lowest level since records began in 1988, according to Agritech Future. Government has responded with up to £50 million in automation funding through Defra, reported by Agri-TechE, underscoring the pressure on growers to digitise.

For British Growers, adding Live Farmer extends its Partnership Scheme without capital outlay, giving members practical tools rather than sponsorship alone. For Live Farmer, the deal secures distribution across an association spanning more than 300 crop categories.

The UK Agri-Tech Centre has identified labour shortages and rising input costs as the central drivers behind the sector's push toward integrated farm data systems over the next decade.

Similar pressures are building in Irish horticulture, where comparable co-operative structures face the same labour and compliance burdens and may look to equivalent partnership models to extend digital capability without direct investment.

Whether Partnership Scheme additions like this remain occasional or become the association's default route to modernising member services will shape how quickly UK horticulture closes its data gap.

Source: FruitToday / Agritech Future / Agri-TechE / UK Agri-Tech Centre