Dr Neil Hudson MP, who represents one of the UK’s most agricultural constituencies, is standing up for farmers by supporting the largest upgrades for farmers, with more funding and less red tape.
Details on the changes were outlined by Environment Secretary Steve Barclay at the Oxford Farming Conference where he announced the updates offer for 2024 which has been redesigned using farmers’ feedback and aims to bring more farmers onboard the schemes and facilitate even greater environmental ambition.
Under the UK’s agricultural transition, new Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes are paying farmers to take actions that boost sustainable food production while delivering positive outcomes for the environment. The schemes are designed to work for all farm types and sizes, with thousands of farmers across England already taking part, and replace the bureaucratic Common Agricultural Policy which saw 50% of funding go to the largest 10% of landowners.
The improvements include:
- A 10% increase in the average value of agreements in the Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship driven by increased payment rates, with uplifts automatically applied to existing agreements.
- A streamlined single application process for farmers to apply for the Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier.
- Around 50 new actions that farmers can get paid for across all types of farm businesses, including actions for agroforestry and those driving forward agricultural technology such as robotic mechanical weeding.
- Enhanced payments for ‘creation’ and ‘maintenance’ options to improve the long term incentives for farmers to create habitats and ensure they are rewarded for looking after habitats once they have created them.
- Premium payments for actions with the biggest environmental impact or combinations of actions that deliver benefits at scale, such as £765 per hectare for nesting plots for lapwing, and £1,242 per hectare for connecting river and floodplain habitat.
On top of this Government is enacting a rapid consultation on clearer food labelling designed to protect our farmers and consumers from cheap food imports that do not meet our high welfare standards and therefore undercut British producers.
This will fairly reward UK farmers for complying with our world-class welfare standards. Following a Buy British Button campaign supported by Dr Neil Hudson MP major food outlets are already starting to implement British sections on their websites.
Dr Neil Hudson MP, Conservative MP, veterinary surgeon and Member of the EFRA Committee said:
“Our farmers in the UK are the best in the world, farming to the highest animal welfare and production standards. Food security is absolutely paramount, and farmers in my constituency and across the country work hard to produce our food to the highest possible standards. That’s why I am very supportive of the Government’s improvements to the Environmental Land Management Schemes announced today, which will ensure farmers’ work as sustainable food producers and custodians of the countryside is more generously rewarded and incentivised.
“It is especially welcome to see the new animal welfare labelling measures to tackle the risk of British food being undercut by lower standard imports. Our consumers have a right to know where their food comes from and how it is produced. Today’s announcement will help protect and enhance our high animal welfare standards by providing greater certainty to shoppers about the origin of their food, allowing them to make more informed choices and support our fantastic British farmers.”
Environment Secretary Steve Barclay said:
“Farmers do the essential job of keeping Britain fed. That’s why I’ll back British farmers and help support farming businesses.
“We have listened to farmers’ feedback and set out the biggest upgrades to our farming schemes since leaving the EU, with more money, more choice and more trust to support domestic food production whilst also protecting the environment.
“We’re also making it easier for farmers of every farm type and size to enter the schemes, and I encourage everyone to take a look at how you can join the thousands of other farmers and land managers who are already receiving our backing through the schemes.”
Farmers will be able to submit their applications for the 2024 offer from this summer, and the timeline for agreements being offered will be accelerated to help farmers benefit from the changes earlier than in previous years.
The application process will also be simplified in 2024 by enabling farmers to apply for the Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier through a single application.
Farmers and landowners can be paid for taking a range of actions under the government’s farming schemes, such as actions to improve soil health or providing nesting and foraging habitats for farmland wildlife. The Government has listened to feedback and introduced more ‘maintenance’ actions, alongside improving existing actions, to reward farmers who are already protecting the environment, for example through maintaining grasslands, wetlands and scrub. Farmers will also be paid more for existing actions to maintain habitats, with the price of maintaining species rich grassland, for example, rising from £182 to £646 per hectare.
The offer also includes more actions for shorter length agreements of up to three years to make the schemes more accessible for tenant farmers.
Today’s announcement builds on significant improvements to the farming schemes in 2023, with thousands of farmers already taking part. Around 8,000 farmers to date have applied to the Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 and there has been a 94% increase in Countryside Stewardship agreements since 2020. This adds to the more than 50 Landscape Recovery projects to deliver large scale environmental benefits around the country.
It comes alongside ongoing support for farmer-led innovation and technology, with the Government committing over £168 million in grant funding to farmers in 2023 to drive innovation, support food production, improve animal health and welfare and protect the environment. This includes the Environment Secretary announcing a further £45 million at the Country Land and Business Association conference in November to fund robotic and automatic equipment and invest in research and development.
