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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take, if any to increase grain production in the UK in the light of current global supply shortages; and what discussions they have had with other governments regarding the expansion of grain production globally in response to those shortages.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges in the past few years. The UK is highly self-sufficient in most grains production, with 88% of cereals consumed in the UK in 2020 produced domestically.

Our fantastic British farmers are world-leaders and carefully plan their planting to suit the weather, their soil type, and their long-term agronomic strategy. It is not Government policy to determine which cereals or other crops farmers should prioritise to include in their rotation. In 2021 we permanently removed Basic Payment Scheme 'greening measures' on crop diversification and ecological focus areas, meaning when farmers are making crop planting decisions, they are free to react to market signals.

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 and to identify where mitigations are available.

Globally, the UK is engaging with likeminded partners through multi-lateral forums including the World Trade Organization, United Nations and G7 to build consensus on the importance of keeping markets open to support global food security and facilitate the smooth functioning of global trade.

We welcome the World Bank’s announcement of $30 billion to address food insecurity globally over the next 15 months, which responds to the UK’s calls for the Bank to mobilise funding to tackle the growing crisis. With G7 allies, we support the launch of the Global Alliance on Food Security, to scale up a rapid, needs-based, coordinated response which avoids a fragmented global response. As an initial response the UK has committed another £10 million to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program to build resilience in agriculture and food security in the poorest countries, bringing our total contribution to £186 million.