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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure that farmers have a stable income.

This Government strongly believes in the importance of farming. For this Government, food security is national security, requiring a sustainable, resilient and healthy food system that works with nature and supports British Farmers.

The Government understands the importance of stability for the sector and so have delivered on our commitment to restore stability by continuing the rollout of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme.

Record numbers of farmers are now in an Environmental Land Management scheme, and the Government wants to maintain the momentum built over recent months. This Government will continue to support farmers by optimising its schemes and grants in an orderly way, ensuring they produce the right outcomes for all farmers while delivering food security and nature recovery in a just and equitable way.

We recognise the pressures that so many farmers are under, including cost pressures. We need to make sure the agricultural transition is fair and will back British farmers in everything we do.

The Government is offering a new deal for farmers giving farmers their future back, including:

• Back British produce and standards and our farmers who produce it. Kickstart rural growth by fostering trading opportunities for British famers.
• We will tackle rising energy costs, by introducing a public sector sustainable energy company - GB Energy.