One goal of Defra’s Future Farming and Countryside Programme is to help farmers and land managers achieve bigger, better environmental benefits. There’s a lot that farmers can do individually on their own land, but there are often circumstances where it makes more sense for several people or businesses to join forces and collaborate on something that benefits all of them, as well as the environment. We want to encourage more collaboration like this.
One of the areas we’re looking at is how much advice and guidance farmers and land managers might need in our new schemes. We’ve got 43 tests and trials exploring this and in this post we’ll share the latest findings.
Farmers like Harry Baker Cresswell are helping us to shape the future of farming in England. In this video, Harry explains what it was like working with Defra to test and trial land management plans. He shows us around Preston Mains Farm and talks about the improvements he will make in his own land management plan.
The Future Farming Countryside Programme will co-design the future of farming with farmers. We’re working with farmers to test their ideas until we have a format that works. This post explains our 'Test and Trial' approach. As we go along, we learn what works, what doesn’t and how we can improve.