Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of avian influenza on domestic poultry and what support they will provide to domestic producers.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The British poultry sector is highly resilient and plays a significant role in the production of high quality chicken, turkey, duck and geese.
The scale of Avian Influenza (AI) outbreaks occurring in the UK and Europe is unprecedented and we recognise the poultry industry is under serious pressure. In the United Kingdom, during the period 1 October to 3 November 2022, approximately 1.5 million chickens, 931,000 turkeys, 336,700 ducks, and 19,000 geese alone have died or been culled for disease control purposes because of AI. In comparison to approximately 2.4 million chickens, 351,000 turkeys, 342,500 ducks and 41,800 geese during the first year of the outbreak (October 2021 to September 2022).
We recognise that these outbreaks are very distressing for the individual poultry farmers and businesses that are affected. However, the overall impact on food supply is relatively small, with approximately 1.1 billion chickens and 11 million turkeys alone usually sold in Great Britain each year.
Defra's objective in tackling any outbreak of Avian Influenza is to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible. Our approach considers the latest ornithological, epidemiological, veterinary and other scientific advice. Where necessary, we are also able to introduce Avian Influenza Prevention Zones (AIPZ) and mandatory housing measures within AIPZs in order to reduce the risk of further disease spread. A national housing order in England was announced on 31 October and will come into force on 7 November.
On 28 October we announced a new package of measures to support domestic producers with the impacts of AI. This included changes to the compensation scheme allowing compensation to be paid to farmers from the outset of planned culling rather than at the end. This will allow us to give earlier certainty about entitlement to compensation, better reflect the impact of outbreaks on premises and lead to swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures.
In consultation with the Food Standards Agency, an easement to marketing rules is also being introduced in England. The measures mean that farmers who breed turkeys, geese, ducks or capons for their meat will have the option to slaughter birds early, and to freeze them, which can then be defrosted and sold to consumers between the period 28 November and 31 December 2022. This option is being introduced to give producers certainty over business planning.
Defra continues to monitor the situation and is working closely with the poultry sector.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the low level of self-sufficiency in fruit and vegetables in England; and what steps they will take to increase domestic production.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have a high degree of self-sufficiency in many of those fruit and vegetables suited to our growing conditions. For example, in 2021 we were able to provide 57% of our vegetable needs, and 72% of the strawberries consumed. Our innovative and enterprising farmers and growers are now exploring ways to maximise this further by optimising growing conditions to increase yields. With advances in technology, they have already extended the growing seasons of a variety of crops through the adoption of Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA) technologies enabling crops to be grown and harvested year-round in a climate-controlled environment.
Our plan to help our fruit and vegetable growers to increase productivity and domestic production was outlined in the Government Food Strategy, launched earlier this year, which announced the development of a new Horticultural Strategy for England. This will cover a range of growing models including high-tech controlled environment growing to increase domestic production.
Defra has committed £98 million for the first round of the Farming Investment Fund which provides grants to farmers and horticultural growers so that they can invest in the equipment, technology and infrastructure that will help improve their productivity while enhancing the environment. We have also invested significant funding to provide grants for industry-led innovation across the farming sectors, including CEA, through UKRI's £90 million Transforming Food Production programme, and more recently through the £270 million Farming Innovation Programme with over £70 million of competition funding committed to date.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in rolling out the Environment Land Management Schemes; and how will those schemes benefit (1) tenant farmers, (2) smallholdings, and (3) upland farmers.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Following extensive testing and piloting, we began the successful roll out of the Sustainable Farming Incentive to eligible farmers in June 2022. We opened the scheme with two soils standards and a moorland standard, providing the opportunity for many thousands of farmers to be rewarded for taking care of their soil or assessing the condition of moorland. The scheme will expand each year, with the full set of standards available by 2025. As of 18th October 2022, over 4,450 farmers had started their applications, of which 1,980 had been submitted to the Rural Payments Agency and these are swiftly moving to live agreements. We will continue to expand the scheme as more funds are released from Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) reductions.
We are continuing to design the successor to Countryside Stewardship through co-design with stakeholders, farmers, foresters and other experts. We have used the outputs of a range of tests and trials to inform the design of the scheme, as well as working collaboratively with farmers and other land managers to design the actions we will pay for to ensure that they are less prescriptive and more flexible than current Countryside Stewardship options. We published some information about the likely shape of the scheme in August 2022, and we will publish more detailed information on what we will pay for later this year.
In February 2022 we launched the first Landscape Recovery competition. We confirmed the 22 successful projects from the first round of applications on 2nd September. Collectively, the successful projects aim to restore nearly 700km of rivers and protect and enhance 263 species such as water vole, otter, pine marten, lapwing, great crested newt, European eel and marsh fritillary.
We are working to make the Environmental Land Management schemes accessible to all kinds of farmers, foresters and other land managers who can deliver the land management activities the schemes pay for, including tenant farmers, small holdings and upland farmers. We are working with farmers, farming organisations and other experts, and reviewing the recommendations in the Rock Review by the Tenancy Working Group to achieve this.