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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of including organic farming system standards including zero-use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides in the (a) nutrient management and (b) integrated pest management Sustainable Farming Incentive standards.

We recognise the benefits that organic farming can offer to the wider environment. We are currently exploring how the Sustainable Farming Incentive can reward organic producers and those wishing to convert to organic systems in line with the payment principles we published in June 2021 – including considerations of whether to introduce a future organic standard, which provides an easily accessible, holistic package for organic farmers.

Organic farmers, like all types of farmers, can take part in the early rollout of the Sustainable Farming Incentive and are likely to be well placed to adopt the higher levels of ambition in the soils’ standards and other standards in development such as Integrated Pest Management due to the specific farming practices they undertake. Organic producers can also join the Countryside Stewardship scheme in addition to a Sustainable Farming Incentive agreement. This is subject to the normal rules around not being paid for the same action twice, and not being paid to undertake incompatible actions on the same parcel of land.

Our current indicative plan for the introduction of the nutrient management and integrated pest management standards into the scheme will be in 2023. The roll out for organics is 2025. The development of the standards is being informed by stakeholder engagement, including with the organic sector.