Suffolk farmer hits out at lack of progress on farm payments

Farmers were hoping for more clarity on future payments when farm minister Mark Spencer addressed the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday, January 5.

UK farmers' old-style Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) farm subsidy is being phased out following Brexit - but nothing announced by government so far has come close to matching the scheme in terms of scale and monetary reward.

Various options are being piloted, including a landscape recovery scheme, but farmers taking part still don't know if such initiatives have a viable future.

Mr Spencer announced he would "take another look at the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes and think about what options and grants will help support your farm" this year.

"As custodians of more than 70% of our countryside, the nation is relying on its farmers to protect our landscapes as well as produce the high-quality food we are known for, and we are increasing payment rates to ensure farmers are not out of pocket for doing the right thing by the environment," he said.

"By increasing the investment in these schemes, I want farmers to see this stacks up for business – whatever the size of your holding."

Among the smaller measures announced were a further £1k a year for nature-friendly work through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). Farmers signed up to the 30,000 Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreements across England are also due to see their payments bumped up by 10%.

But Andrew Blenkiron, chairman of the Suffolk branch of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) said the universal feeling was that the government was offering "too little, too late" as subsidies ebb away. 

Many farmers still believed that ELMs would in some way replace BPS - which had enabled farms to produce food at a subsidised price, he said, but have been left disappointed.

Others - such as the Euston Estate where he is director - were looking at other options to fill the gaping hole left in their finances as BPS disappears in 2028.

His farm will be left half a million pound short as BPS is phased out - but the SFI payments only amount to £30k - half of which will be swallowed up in additional tests and requirements, he said. "The payments don't really cover the cost of the scheme," he said.

Many farmers were voting with their feet - leading to poor uptake, he added. Farmers are looking at other ways to fill the gap, such as by working with third parties to help with their carbon sequestration or other net zero goals. But such schemes are still in their infancy - with the potential of tying up land use for a long period - and work was needed to ensure that farmers get a fair deal to avoid a race to the bottom, he said.

NFU vice president David Exwood said farmers and growers making vital business decisions needed clarity on ELM schemes and options available.

"It is hugely frustrating that nearly five years on from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (DEFRA) Health and Harmony consultation, which set farming in England on a path towards public goods for public payments, we still only have three standards available for the SFI," he said.

"It’s a sad reflection of the scheme’s progress and development that NFU members know more about what they will lose in direct payments than what they will gain from taking part in these new schemes."

The Soil Association was also left disappointed. Its head of farming policy, Gareth Morgan, said: “Farmers still await the bold vision and clarity they need to invest with confidence in a transition to nature-friendly farming systems, like organic. We are running out of time – government needs more game-changing action."

At the moment, despite the government's ambition to improve the environment, there was not enough money on the table to make schemes viable for many farmers, said Mr Blenkiron. Farmers wanted to produce food while helping the countryside, he added, but needed government support to enable that to happen.

"We can do both - we can produce high quality food and enhance the wildlife around it too," he said.