Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on delivering future farming schemes.

On 2 December 2021, we published a document called Sustainable Farming Incentive – how the scheme will work in 2022. On 6 January 2022, we published more information on Local Nature Recovery, Landscape Recovery, and the expected outcomes of the three schemes. On the same day, we announced that we have reviewed Countryside Stewardship revenue payment rates. We will be increasing payment rates for the majority of revenue options, to reflect changes in agricultural market rates since payment rates were set in 2013.

These new documents build on the information we published in the Agricultural Transition Plan: June 2021 progress update, and provide the next level of detail necessary for farmers to make the right decisions for themselves and their businesses.

We are also offering a range of interventions to help farmers improve their productivity in a sustainable way, support them as we move through the transition, create a thriving agricultural sector, and reward farmers for actions that benefit the environment.

For example, £10.7 million of funding has been awarded through the Future Farming Resilience Fund, to provide business support to farmers and land managers to help them navigate the changes during the early years of the agricultural transition period. This support will help farmers by providing the information and tools required to plan with confidence on the best way forward for their business. The support will be available, free of charge, from onwards and any farmer or land manager currently in receipt of BPS is eligible to apply.

Defra also launched the new Farming Investment Fund, which will offer funding for equipment, technology, and infrastructure that improves farm productivity and benefits the environment. There is also the Farming Innovation Programme, which encouraged groups of farmers, growers, businesses and researchers to get involved in collaborative research and development.