There was a time when it used to be a dirty word, when farmers felt it was some form of treachery against their livelihoods, but now it has become an established part of most farming families' lives.

Diversification was resisted by many purely on the basis that they were farmers and always would be, yet most have now come to realise that diversifying doesn't mean that you don't farm the way you used to, you just incorporate something else into the farm business to make it more viable for the future.

What diversification has done for quite a number of farms is to give them a new lease of life, a new purpose, and for those who have had children who wanted to stay on the farm or keep involved in the farm business it has offered greater opportunity to create more income rather than spreading the actual farming income ever more thinly across a greater number of adults.

Put simply, farm diversification is now an essential part of most farms' future and it can be as dramatically different from what you are doing on-farm as you like.

Of course there are some farmers who have always diversified. One of the Singing Farmers who I sing and play guitar with, Tony Richards, of Glaisdale in the North York Moors, diversified his interests long ago and developed a career as a singer/entertainer on the North East circuit. He was doing this far before it became fashionable to do so but last year he celebrated 50 years in the entertainment industry as well as running his sheep farm.

A great deal of farmers diversified their farming interest by using something even closer to their actual farm in offering their labour and machinery out to neighbouring farms as agricultural contractors. It might not look much like diversification, because it's still agricultural based, but whoever said that diversification had to be about changing completely?

It's all a matter of using your resources well, whether that is utilising the land you have got in a better way, such as developing business centres, equestrian centres and even recording studios; or whether it is simply utilising your own gifts, your talent. Sometimes that can be as simple as turning the thing you really enjoy doing into a small business venture.

It can be very difficult, family-wise, when your children reach an age where they have finished school, college or university and they want to come back to the farm. The pressure on some parents is such that, because their parents before them were able to find jobs for their sons and daughters on-farm there is a feeling that today's parents should have to do the same or otherwise they are failing them in some way. That's again where diversifying the interests of the farm can come in and often the younger generations are better equipped with the knowledge of setting up such ideas as internet-based businesses or mail order businesses.

But it doesn't always have to be the younger end who go down that route too as I know of several farmer's wives who have developed highly successful alternative enterprises to the farm business by starting up a mail order company. When you're stuck in the middle of nowhere you might feel at a disadvantage at times if you are looking in to moving in to the retail environment, yet with mail order you can be situated anywhere.

In this year's Farm Diversification Awards we are looking particularly for those types of diversification that are somewhat different to the norm, ones that you have developed either because of your own talent and flair for a certain area of business, or ones that you started off thinking might just keep you happy and add to the farm's income but have done far more than you ever expected.

Tourism is another major factor for Farming in the North farming operations and farm diversification and we are particularly looking here for those that have either reached a significant quality level in B&B accommodation, or are sufficiently different to others. It might be that you have launched a restaurant or activity centre. But there really is so much more that you have probably done that we are not aware of – and that's why we would really like to hear from you.

This year's Farm Diversification Awards 2007 are sponsored, once again, by leading taxation and accountancy specialists Greaves, West & Ayre, based in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Partner, Andrew Ayre, believes that the farming world is vibrant with diversification activity at present: 'At Greaves, West & Ayre we are constantly advising farm businesses on matters relating to the setting up of other business interests on the farm.

"Some of these may be directly related to agriculture, but a great deal of them are completely different to the farming interest, although they often utilise buildings or land on the farm which is no longer directly used for the farming operation.

"As a thriving operation ourselves, looking after over 350 farming clients, we are particularly keen on any way in which farming families incomes can be both maintained and enhanced and that's why we see the Farm Diversification Awards as very real honours to those who have recognised their own way forward."

This year's Farm Diversification Awards have already seen a number of entries but the deadline for all entries – and we would like to hear from you as soon as possible – is 31 May 2007. Whatever you can supply us with about your diversified business would be much appreciated – but don't worry, we don't need to look at your books!