The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has called on UK Government to ally with industry over climate ambitions and food security as it is revealed that Defra has underspent £358 million over three years.
The NFU has stated that it “firmly believes” that British farming is “very much part of the solution” to decarbonising the UK economy. It highlighted that with the right policy framework and incentives, a food chain that rewards climate friendly food production and trade agreements that don’t undermine high domestic production standards, industry could do much more.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “We hope the new Government will treat UK farming as an ally for its climate ambitions. Its ambition needs to be backed by meaningful policy incentives and levers enabling the farming sector to improve productivity, incentivise baselining and better data and scientific evidence and to boost renewable energy and the wider bioeconomy. Net zero is never going to be an ambition farmers can deliver alone.”
As NFU called on Government to provide additional funding for British farming and climate ambitions, it was revealed that Defra had underspent its agriculture budget for the last three years.
Tom Bradshaw said the £358 million underspend was “unacceptable” and “nothing short of a kick in the teeth” to farmers and growers, who he said had faced “years of uncertainty and loss of income” during the agricultural transition.
He said: “Let’s be clear, this underspend hasn’t happened because the investment isn’t needed. It’s happened because the schemes to replace the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) have not been completed in time and there are still many gaps and questions unanswered. We have flagged problems with the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes from day one and, despite some improvements, there is a still big gap in spending as the money saved from the continued BPS reductions has sat gathering dust.
Bradshaw said that 12 years ago NFU was a “lone voice” calling for reductions in BPS to be paused: “It wasn’t, and yet farmers and growers continued to face record inflation levels and devastating weather events. We’re now seeing the consequences as confidence in the sector has collapsed.”
When in opposition, the Food Security Minister previously asked that any underspend in agricultural funding be rolled over into future years, requesting clarity from Defra about how this would be done. NFU said it would now be asking for the same thing.
NFU calls on Government to increase agriculture budget to £5.6 billion
Bradshaw continued: “The NFU will continue to work with its members, to carry on their climate friendly farming journey, to build more resilient, profitable, and sustainable farming businesses and secure the sector that grows the raw ingredients for UK agrifood; the UK’s largest manufacturing sector, worth more than £148 billion and creates jobs for more than four million people.”
Bradshaw addressed MPs at a Parliament breakfast reception, stating: “Over the past 18 months we have seen a collapse in farmer confidence, driven by record inflation, falls in farm income and a changing climate with unprecedented weather patterns delivering relentless rain which left thousands of acres of farmland under water.
“We’re calling on Government to truly value UK food security by delivering a renewed and enhanced multi-annual agriculture budget of £5.6 billion on the 30th October. This budget is essential in giving Britain’s farmers and growers the confidence they desperately need to invest for the future and deliver on our joint ambitions on producing more sustainable, affordable homegrown food while creating more jobs and delivering for nature, energy security and climate-friendly farming.”
