Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution

Who we are

The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution – RABI – is an award-winning national charity providing local support to the farming community across England and Wales. Established in 1860, we have been offering guidance, financial support and practical care to farming people of all ages for generations.

Confidential support is available to those who currently work within agriculture and also to those who are no longer able to work in the sector due to ill-health, accident or age. Support is tailored to each applicant and initial advice can be accessed via the RABI freephone helpline 0800 188 4444 or through referral.

As RABI continues to evolve and develop its future service delivery programmes and partnerships, we continue to fulfil our charitable objects as a grant making charity.

A range of grant support programmes are available to individuals, including enduring and single grant awards. We also award funding to other not-for-profit organisations to support activities that fulfil our charitable objectives. Further details of our grant programmes can be accessed, if you would like to speak to one of our team, please call our freephone helpline on 0800 188 4444.

RABI’s online wellbeing platform offers free, anonymous, farmer-focussed resources to adults and young farming people. These resources are available 24/7 and in addition to the farmer-focussed articles and discussion boards, users can access one-to-one counselling from BACP qualified counsellors.

In response to the results of the Big Farming Survey, RABI launched new in-person mental health counselling. The free, confidential in-person counselling is delivered by BACP accredited counsellors. Counselling sessions can take place face-to-face, by telephone or video conferencing and are tailored and led by each individual. Anyone feeling they could benefit from talking to a professional can access via RABI’s 24/7 helpline on 0800 188 4444.

In addition to in-person counselling, RABI is launched the first suite of accredited/certified mental health training tailored for the farming sector. The training provides a valuable tool for the agricultural community to help them feel comfortable talking about how they are feeling.

Our farming communities are facing increasingly complex challenges and pressures. We believe RABI has a crucial role to play now and in the future, to support the wellbeing of farming people. 

To ensure RABI can continue to maximise the impact of our support, we launched an ambitious strategy in 2019 that looks ahead and sets out a clear vision to provide even more effective support to the farming community.