Supporters of a farming model that aims to re-establish links between food producers and their local communities have launched a crowd-funding bid to develop connections between practitioners in the UK.

Community Supported Agriculture in the UK appears to be on the increase, but the lack of adequate coordination and communication between projects means the approach remains niche and developments are hard to track. However, such partnerships have taken off in the United States and Japan, as well as in some European states, notably France. A new UK-wide network is hoping to raise funds to support and promote CSA schemes across the country.

The basic principle of community supported agriculture is that farmers and their local community develop a partnership wherein the responsibilities, risks and rewards of farming are shared. In return for helping farmers, financially or physically, members of the CSA get fresh, local produce and often a degree of input into some general management decisions.

CSA projects are organised in various different ways, with members being required to volunteer for a certain amount of time on some CSAs and take part in meetings, whilst for others the relationship is more an agreement between the farmer and those they supply, often through a veg box or similar scheme.

The campaign to improve connections between the UK's projects was launched at the end of February by CSA Network UK and aims to raise £6,500 in 60 days; the Network has an overall target of £19,140. As of Monday, 3 March, the campaign had raised £1,534 with 56 days to go, but if the crowd-funding bid fails to secure the initial £6,500, the project will get nothing. 

The CSA Network was launched at a national conference held in December 2013 at Stroud Community Agriculture, a well-established community enterprise, which produces vegetables and livestock using organic and biodynamic principles. The Network is aiming to build a website with interactive tools to help existing CSAs interact and provide resources for setting up new projects. The group hopes this resource will "give essential support to farmers, growers and communities who are changing our food system from the bottom up."

It will also help to map CSAs around the UK and organise regional events. Organisers said they hope the Network's work and proposed online hub will fill a vacuum left when a National Lottery grant expired, which has left existing projects without a location to exchange information, and prospective founders without links to more established projects.

How many CSAs are there in the UK?

Although evidence suggests the CSA model is growing rapidly in the UK, the lack of a point of coordination makes assessing the number of projects and rate of growth difficult.

Rachel Harries, coordinator of the CSA Network, said that the latest figures, collected by the Soil Association in 2011, showed that the UK had 80 trading community supported agriculture schemes and 100 more in various stages of development. She said that, based on this assessment, there are now thought to be around 100 active CSAs in the country.

Soil Association maintains that there is now a pressing need for a healthy UK Network. USDA estimates from a similar period to the UK data put the number of projects in the United States, where the concept is more established, at around 12,000.

The CSA Network claims the model could help in more ways than providing stable income for farmers and nutritious food to their local communities. In addition to improving the wellbeing, and often the diet, of members, a report released two years ago suggested CSAs can improve employment opportunities in agriculture, where the workforce has been halved and incomes have dropped by 14 percent since 1970. The report, commissioned by the Soil Association, also suggested CSAs tend to have more environmental and wildlife features than conventional farms.

The new UK Network also claims that CSAs could provide a means of reducing food poverty; with food price inflation at 5 percent year-on-year and wages falling in real terms, the number of people in the UK who can't afford to eat well risks reaching five million. Many CSAs aim to be as inclusive as possible, and not to exclude people with lower incomes.

Speaking on Monday, Rachel Harries outlined the Network's hopes for the crowd-funding bid and future work. Harries said, "There is a huge amount of knowledge held by the people who have successfully set up CSA projects across the UK, but most farmers and growers in CSA projects are really busy producing food and don't have much time to help other people set up new projects. Our new network aims to make it easier for people to find and join a CSA, provide tools to existing CSAs to share their expertise and give real support to farmers, growers and communities who want to create new schemes."

The crowd-funding campaign allows backers to support the network at a variety of tiers and receive a huge range of rewards donated by CSA projects themselves. Rewards include free vegetable boxes, tours of successful CSA projects and even a year mentoring support from CSA expert Nikki Giles who set up Flintshare Community Agriculture. All supporters giving over £25 will be eligible to become members of the Network.

The Network has produced a video, using a recently established project in Devon to illustrate its message. More information on the campaign is available here.