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1717523

registered interest
date	13/05/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Agriculture
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the NFU's report entitled Farming for Britain's Future, published in December 2023, what steps his Department has taken to increase confidence within the agricultural industry.
tabling member constituency	Shrewsbury and Atcham
tabling member printed	Daniel Kawczynski
uin	25817
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2024 answer text <p>In 2020 we published the Agricultural Transition Plan (ATP), setting out our plan for farmers, allowing them to make business planning decisions with confidence. Since then, we have launched our reforms, aiming to give farmers more choice and ensuring there are offers available for all farm types and locations. This includes the rollout of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and our Innovation and Productivity schemes such as the Farming Investment Fund (FIF).</p><p> </p><p>We also continue to expand and improve our offers in response to farmers’ feedback. Recently, the Government has confirmed farmers will benefit from the improved SFI from July this year, following the announcement by the Environment Secretary Steve Barclay in January. The improved offer includes a 10% increase in the average value of agreements in SFI and Countryside Stewardship (CS); a streamlined single application process for farmers to apply for the SFI and CS Mid-Tier; and around 50 new actions that farmers can get paid for.</p><p> </p><p>Furthermore, to aid the transition, and to give farmers confidence in their choices and the best chance of benefiting from our reforms we are also providing support via the Future Farming Resilience Fund. This fund is designed to provide free business support to farmers and land managers in England during the early years of the agricultural transition.</p><p> </p><p>Lastly, on 14 May 2024 we published our Blueprint for Growing the UK Fruit and Vegetable Sector, which aims to boost production of fresh produce and reduce reliance on imports. This is backed by our new Horticulture Resilience and Growth Offer, where Defra will look to double to £80m the amount of funding given to horticulture businesses when compared to the EU legacy Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme, which will be replaced from 2026 onwards. We are also unlocking the opportunities of gene editing with £15m investment into Genetic Improvement Networks, helping to boost access to more resilient crop varieties, that require fewer inputs and cut farmer costs.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Sir Mark Spencer question first answered 15/05/2024 15:53:57 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	1566 label Biography information for Daniel Kawczynski

1699251

registered interest
date	26/03/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Agriculture
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will undertake an assessment of the impact of the agricultural transition on food production and farm business viability.
tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of St Albans
uin	HL3641
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/04/2024 answer text <p>We very recently published a detailed impact assessment of a long list of actions considered for inclusion in the Environmental Land Management schemes. Actions were rated against a large number of ecosystem services and their impact on food production. An executive summary is attached.</p><p> </p><p>We have provided information on the potential impact of our farming reforms. For example, the farming evidence compendium was most recently updated in September 2022 and the Agriculture in the UK Dashboard was published in November 2023. These set out the contribution of Direct Payments to Farm Business Income, including analysis by sector, location in England and type of land tenure.’</p><p> </p><p>We also publish regular statistics on farm profitability, agricultural productivity and food production, including a recent statistical publication (attached) looking at how Farm Business Income has changed since the start of the agricultural transition. This publication also provides an overview of changes to the Basic Payment Scheme and agri-environment payments.</p><p> </p><p>As part of the agricultural transition, we monitor baskets of relevant metrics to maintain insights into general sector trends. The Government has recently committed to producing an annual Food Security Index to capture and present the key data to monitor food security.</p><p> </p><p>We will of course continue to carry out appropriate timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller attachment 1 file name QEIA_1_Executive_Summary.pdf title Qualitative Impact Assessment of Land Management 2 file name Monitoring the agricultural transition_2022_23.pdf title Monitoring the agricultural transition period question first answered 12/04/2024 10:07:23 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
tabling member	4308 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of St Albans

1666282

registered interest
date	19/10/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Agriculture
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what current action they are taking to work with (1) major supermarket chains, and (2) fruit and vegetable farmers, to protect the future of British food and farming for the long term, and to ensure that farmers have job security and stability.
tabling member printed	The Marquess of Lothian
uin	HL10684
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2023 answer text <p>The Government values our food and farming system, and we are delivering a range of measures to back our hardworking farmers and growers to support a resilient, innovative and more sustainable system. A thriving horticultural sector is a crucial part of our food system, as well as an important part of our wider economy, and we are committed to supporting it.</p><p> </p><p>My department meets regularly with food retailers to discuss a range of issues, including the future of British food and farming. The Prime Minister held the UK Farm to Fork Summit at 10 Downing Street on 16 May, which focussed on how Government and industry can work together across a number of issues affecting the sector.</p><p> </p><p>We want all farmers and growers to receive a fair price for their products and the Government is committed to tackling contractual unfairness that can exist in the agri-food supply chain. At the Farm to Fork Summit we announced a review of the horticulture supply chain to help ensure farmers are paid a fair price for their produce. In December, we will launch a public consultation exploring these issues. We will analyse the responses and provide a formal response that provides a summary of the findings and sets out next steps. This review seeks to understand issues relating to fairness in the supply chain across the whole of the UK. If responses indicate there are contractual issues that we believe we should seek to address, the powers in the Agriculture Act apply to the whole of the UK.</p><p> </p><p>Our regular discussions with industry representatives help inform future policy development and help us understand what support the sector needs to help it thrive.</p> answering member printed Lord Benyon question first answered 25/10/2023 11:02:06 answering member 1547 label Biography information for Lord Benyon
tabling member	259 label Biography information for The Marquess of Lothian

1658210

registered interest
date	05/09/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Agriculture
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) improve the sustainability of and (b) increase the use of regenerative farming practices.
tabling member constituency	York Outer
tabling member printed	Julian Sturdy
uin	197735
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/09/2023 answer text <p>Environmental land management is the foundation of our new approach to farming. Our new schemes will pay for sustainable farming practices (such as reducing carbon emissions, creating, and preserving habitat, and making landscape-scale environmental changes) and improvements to animal health and welfare.</p><p> </p><p>The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pays farmers for actions that support food production and can help improve farm productivity and resilience, while protecting and improving the environment. On 21 June 2023, we announced the new and improved SFI 2023 offer – containing 23 actions which will offer farmers additional actions and more flexibility to choose the actions they want to get paid for. When adopted at scale, these actions will support sustainable food production and contribute towards the environmental targets set out in the government’s Environmental Improvement Plan. Farmers were invited to register their interest in SFI 2023 from 30 August, and can sign up from 18 September.</p><p> </p><p>The Landscape Recovery scheme supports a regenerative approach to agriculture. It focusses on restoring nature across a wider landscape, bringing together landowners and managers who want to take a more large-scale, long-term approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land.  Projects involving elements of regenerative farming can apply - with round two LR pilot applications closing on 21 September 2023.</p><p> </p><p>Our Countryside Stewardship scheme includes actions that can form part of a regenerative or restorative farming approach; to improve soil quality, enhance biodiversity, decrease water pollution, and restore, create, and manage habitats. We are expanding the scheme to make around 30 additional actions available to farmers by the end of 2024, as well as targeting our funding towards actions in places where they can have the biggest impacts, in ways that are joined up across larger areas.</p><p> </p><p>We are also offering farmers and land managers, including those who take a regenerative approach, funding for equipment, technology, and infrastructure that improves farm productivity and benefits the environment through the Farming Investment Fund. This offers funding for equipment, technology, and infrastructure that improves farm productivity and benefits the environment.</p><p> </p><p>The Farming Innovation Programme encourages groups of farmers, growers, businesses, and researchers to get involved in collaborative research and development. Farmers testing out regenerative approaches to agriculture will be able to apply for these grants, and we believe that by working together, they will be able to solve challenges and exploit opportunities for increasing productivity and environmental sustainability in the agricultural and horticultural sectors in England.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Mark Spencer question first answered 19/09/2023 15:50:40 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	4079 label Biography information for Julian Sturdy

1640223

registered interest
date	24/05/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Agriculture
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen the long-term (1) resilience, and (2) sustainability, of the agricultural sector in the UK.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL8112
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/05/2023 answer text <p>As agriculture is a devolved matter, the resilience and sustainability of the agricultural sector in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are matters for their respective devolved administrations.</p><p> </p><p>In England, the Government has taken a number of steps to strengthen the long-term resilience and sustainability of the agricultural sector. We are offering ongoing payments and one-off grants to improve farm productivity, benefit the environment and support sustainable food production. We have already seen the number of agreements in Countryside Stewardship increase by 94 per cent since 2020 and now almost one third of farm holdings are in an agri-environmental scheme. Landscape Recovery was also hugely oversubscribed, with all projects involving farmers including tenants, and we opened applications to the next round of farmers and land managers on 18 May 2023. The Sustainable Farming Incentive will open with a new and improved, expanded offer later in summer 2023. Many farmers have also already applied for £168 million of grant funding available this year to support investments in productivity, animal health and welfare and the environment. Farmers affected by the phasing out of Direct Payments can also receive free business advice and support through the Future Farming Resilience Fund.</p><p> </p><p>Furthermore, at our recent UK Farm to Fork Summit we announced:</p><p> </p><p>A further £12.5 million is being made available in May to support research projects that will support environmental sustainability and resilience on farms</p><p>Additional investment of up to around £30 million to unlock the potential of precision breeding</p><p>A working group to bring plant breeders, food manufacturers and retailers together to agree an approach that enables these products to reach our shelves.</p><p> </p><p>Beyond this, we have invested £8 million in research through our crop Genetic Improvement Networks over the last five years to improve UK food security and environmental outcomes. We will build upon this through substantial additional investment to unlock the potential of precision breeding, following royal assent for the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act.</p><p>We have also launched three farming innovation competitions since January this year, providing a total of £21.5 million of funding. These measures will enable our future food and farming sector to be more productive and resilient thanks to British science and innovation.</p><p> </p><p>We will continue to work closely with the Food and Drink Sector Council, which brings together leaders across the whole of the agri-food chain and across government, on the issues that it plans to focus on for the next year including: the future of food; sustainability; workforce challenges; and supply resilience.</p> answering member printed Lord Benyon question first answered 31/05/2023 12:50:24 answering member 1547 label Biography information for Lord Benyon
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1626635

registered interest
date	10/05/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Agriculture
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the number of arable fields that were sown in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Westmorland and Lonsdale
tabling member printed	Tim Farron
uin	184335
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2023 answer text <p>Defra does not collect data at a field level, so cannot provide any estimate of the number of arable fields sown. The Rural Payment Agency does have some field level data, but it cannot be used to provide an estimate of the number of arable fields sown.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Mark Spencer question first answered 16/05/2023 09:01:49 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	1591 label Biography information for Tim Farron