TAAF has in the past raised money for its awards from many different sources: DFID, Gatsby Charitable Foundation, Roll Foundation, private donations and TAA itself.

For the last five years TAAF has operated with a budget of £15,000-£20,000 per year, which has enabled it to make on average 4-6 long term awards and 7-9 MSc awards each year.

Click here for TAAF's income and expenditure statement for the last financial year.

With the crisis in food production and the challenge of coping with climate change which now face the world, and developing countries in particular, there is both an urgent need to increase the number of people in the UK with practical experience of international natural resource development, and a growing demand from new graduates in relevant disciplines to work in this field.

TAAF has set itself a target of increasing its annual budget by 10% per year (to a maximum of £50,000 per year so that committee members can continue to maintain the personal relationship between awardees and TAAF which is a hallmark of the fund).

Such an expansion would allow TAAF to double the number of awards made per year. An award advertising campaign is being mounted at relevant universities and colleges to spread knowledge of the award fund and to stimulate the appropriate number of applications.

Applications for finance to supplement TAAF's limited resources are currently being pursued with several donors, foundations, agribusiness firms, education trusts and philanthropic institutions. Interested donors are invited to contact the TAA Treasurer (treasurer@taa.org.uk), TAAF Chairman (taa_award_fund@taa.org.uk) or Secretary (secretary_taaf@taa.org.uk) for further information.