As outlined in the Chancellor’s announcement, we have secured a budget of £2.4 billion for the next financial year. This means we can maintain the momentum of our environmental land management (ELM) schemes, which will rise to the highest funding levels ever by 2025/26.
Countryside Stewardship is a scheme that pays farmers, woodland owners and land managers to look after and improve the environment. In this post, I’ll share some changes we made to the running of the scheme.
In this post, I'll provide an overview of our approach to payments for farmers taking part in the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot.
Since publishing the Agricultural Transition Plan, we've been invited to join a number of panel discussions, Q&A sessions and webinars, hosted by external organisations. This post contains video links to some of those events.
At NFU21, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice, spoke about the Sustainable Farming Incentive. In this post, Tom Lewis explains our approach to SFI and what you need to know.
Farm visits are an opportunity for farmers to tell us about the issues they are facing and to make clear the realities of farming. Due to COVID-19, physical farm visits stopped. The experience was too valuable to abandon, so we created virtual farm visits instead. Michael Sturla shares more.
In our first ever podcast, Programme Director Janet Hughes talks to farmer Neil Heseltine. Neil shares his approach to farming and his views on the Future Farming and Countryside Programme. Janet and Neil also discuss sustainability, profitability and care for our environment.
Farmers were invited to put their questions to Defra’s Janet Hughes and David Kennedy at The Farming Forum's most recent Question Time. Questions included payment rates, the role of advisers and how new schemes and services will be tested.
Our Countryside Stewardship scheme is now open for 2022 agreements. Countryside Stewardship will eventually be replaced with the new Environmental Land Management scheme. By entering an agreement now, farmers will benefit from the new agricultural policy once it is fully rolled out in 2024.
Social Researcher, Hannah Baker shares how her team is working to ensure farmers’ voices are ‘on the table’ during discussions about farming policy.
We want to know what you think about our revised national action plan for the sustainable use of pesticides. The draft plan covers the next 5 years and aims to minimise the risks and impacts of pesticides to human health and the environment, while ensuring pests and pesticide resistance are managed effectively.
