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Watch: How the Sustainable Farming Incentive works hand in hand with arable crop production

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SFI and arable farming Caroline-Knox

We went to the Isle of Wight to meet SFI agreement holder Caroline Knox. In this film, Caroline explains how the Sustainable Farming Incentive works hand in hand with commercial maize and rye production on her farm.

Farming podcast: Next steps for environmental land management

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Episode 11 of the Defra Farming podcast. Defra payments lead Lisa Warne talks to father and son John and Charlie Renner

In this episode, Lisa Warne talks to John Renner and his son, Charlie. John farms on the border of the  Northumberland National Park between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Alnwick. Charlie is a farm business consultant and continues to help out on the farm. Lisa gives an update on the growth and rollout of our environmental land management schemes. John and Charlie talk about how the new farming payments fit in with the management of their farm. They had plenty of questions for Lisa about the new grants and actions.

Landscape Recovery: get ready for the second round

Trees in Cannock, England

You may have seen in our recent environmental land management update that the second round of Landscape Recovery will open in spring. To help you prepare, we’re hosting a series of webinars. In this post, I’ll share a brief overview of Landscape Recovery, our progress so far and the details of those webinars. 

Environmental land management schemes: details of actions and payments

Hele, Mid Devon District photograph by Alison Day

We recently published more information on the rollout of our environmental land management schemes. It includes the full range of actions, payment rates and when they’ll be available. This post gives a scheme-by-scheme summary.

Introducing SFI Management Payments and changes to Countryside Stewardship rates

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Countryside Stewardship, Sustainable Farming Incentive, Things we've learned
Winter scene on the Killerton estate by Alison Day

In this, the first blog post of the year, I’d like to share two updates with you and explain the rationale behind them. The first update is a change to Countryside Stewardship payment rates. The second is the introduction of the Sustainable Farming Incentive Management Payment.

Watch: Farming in protected landscapes in the Lake District

In the second of our series of films from the Lake District, local farm facilitator Danny Teasdale took us to meet Jasmine Holliday. Jasmine is a Farming Officer in the Lake District National Park and she works on the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme. In this video, Jasmine talks about the ambitions of the programme, which type of projects can get funding, and what works best in the Lake District National Park.

An update on the first round of Landscape Recovery projects

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: A view from the farm, Payments to restore landscapes and ecosystems
Darent Valley Farm Cluster.

In summer, we announced the 22 projects chosen for the first round of Landscape Recovery. We initially said we would recruit up to 15 projects, but we were so impressed with the quality of applications that we ended up extending this to 22. In this post, I’ll share more about the projects, including how they were assessed and selected.

Environmental land management schemes: progress update

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Yesterday, Rt Hon Mark Spencer MP, Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries and Janet Hughes, Programme Director, Future Farming and Countryside Programme appeared before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. The session was part of a committee inquiry into the rollout of the new environmental land management schemes.