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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the NFU's report entitled Farming for Britain's Future, published in December 2023, what steps his Department has taken to increase confidence within the agricultural industry.

In 2020 we published the Agricultural Transition Plan (ATP), setting out our plan for farmers, allowing them to make business planning decisions with confidence. Since then, we have launched our reforms, aiming to give farmers more choice and ensuring there are offers available for all farm types and locations. This includes the rollout of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and our Innovation and Productivity schemes such as the Farming Investment Fund (FIF).

We also continue to expand and improve our offers in response to farmers’ feedback. Recently, the Government has confirmed farmers will benefit from the improved SFI from July this year, following the announcement by the Environment Secretary Steve Barclay in January. The improved offer includes a 10% increase in the average value of agreements in SFI and Countryside Stewardship (CS); a streamlined single application process for farmers to apply for the SFI and CS Mid-Tier; and around 50 new actions that farmers can get paid for.

Furthermore, to aid the transition, and to give farmers confidence in their choices and the best chance of benefiting from our reforms we are also providing support via the Future Farming Resilience Fund. This fund is designed to provide free business support to farmers and land managers in England during the early years of the agricultural transition.

Lastly, on 14 May 2024 we published our Blueprint for Growing the UK Fruit and Vegetable Sector, which aims to boost production of fresh produce and reduce reliance on imports. This is backed by our new Horticulture Resilience and Growth Offer, where Defra will look to double to £80m the amount of funding given to horticulture businesses when compared to the EU legacy Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme, which will be replaced from 2026 onwards. We are also unlocking the opportunities of gene editing with £15m investment into Genetic Improvement Networks, helping to boost access to more resilient crop varieties, that require fewer inputs and cut farmer costs.