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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps her Department has taken to help support crop-growing farmers with higher costs due to inflation.

We recognise that input costs have increased over the last year or so mainly due to the war in Ukraine. The Government has acted to support the agricultural sector, including crop-growing farmer, in a number of ways.

During 2022 we took several actions to support farmers respond to the increase in input costs. These included:

• Changes to guidance on farmers using manures and steps aimed at bringing about more sustainable fertiliser technologies through the Sustainable Farming Incentive,
• Increased grants for farmers and growers and boosting research and development through the Farming Innovation Programme.
• The Basic Payment Scheme payment being made in two instalments to give farmers greater financial fluidity for the remainder of the agricultural transition period

Additionally in January 2023, Farming Minister Mark Spencer announced more money for farmers and landowners through both the Countryside Stewardship and the Sustainable Farming Incentive schemes, which will provide more support to the industry and drive uptake at a time of rising costs for farmers as a result of global challenges. He also confirmed an expanded range of actions under the schemes, which farmers could be paid for, would be published soon.

We are working closely with the industry to identify where further mitigations are available to tackle the challenges they face. We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. We have also increased our engagement with industry to supplement our analysis with real time intelligence.