Direct Payments to Farmers (Crop Diversification Derogation) (England) Regulations 2020

Baroness Northover Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover (LD)]

My Lords, I declare a past interest as the daughter of a tenant farmer for whom grants were vital to the viability of the farm. I learned that the weather was central to our lives, whether frosts that arrived at lambing time or south-westerlies that flattened the corn at harvest time. I also learned that diversification was vital. Rape and mustard crops following harvest meant that the sheep would put nutrition back into the soil and smaller quantities of fertiliser would be needed. In addition, I learned that at any instance, one part of the farm would lose money, another might break even and, with luck, a third, whether sheep, beef or arable, would make a profit. It was impossible, however, to know from year to year which would be which; diversification, therefore, was more sustainable, but then my father had hilltops, not rich Norfolk arable land.

The aims of diversification through rotation, multiple cropping and species mixture can allow farming to become more resource-efficient with fewer inputs. It helps to defend against climate change and the degrading of the soil and promotes water and species conservation. It is ironic, if understandable, that after storms and bad weather, the Government are seeking a derogation from crop diversification here. It is clearly important to be flexible in difficult circumstances, but there is a real risk that post Brexit, and in a post-Covid-19 recession, diversification will be reduced in the long term, especially because of climate change, as we fight the global markets. Will the Minister assure us that that will not happen and that the Government are looking at the long-term future and role of farming? It needs to be sustainable in the full sense of the word, both for the industry and for all of us.