There have been a fair few ways in which this government has not endeared itself to the farm community – the unexpected Inheritance Tax relief decisions, accelerated Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) cuts, capital grants pause, and the sudden pause on the Sustainable Farm Incentive Scheme (SFI) being big ones. The pause in the SFI in March was disastrous.
It brought a big slice of the farm transition – with many farmers starting to try agri-environment schemes - to a terrible halt. Even farmers who had done half the application were left in the lurch.
What should be happening
We know we need all farms, of all types and sizes, acting for nature, ecosystem recovery, nature-based flood management and for climate resilience. The farmers, workers and suppliers, need support to do this as the market won’t pay for the many vital things they can provide.
Our research showed that the £2.5 billion a year in the current farming budget already falls short of what was needed to repair soils, rivers, habitats, beneficial insects and restore natural ecosystems overall. So, a significant cut to that would effectively hollow out the funding for this and remove all hope of reaching the Government’s targets for wildlife recovery.
It would also leave farmers unsupported to adapt to extreme climate change and exposed to the whims of market forces demanding unsustainably low prices and specifications. Relying on private finance or handouts from other funding pots or other departments would just create more uncertainty and confusion.