Landowners and growers should be supported to farm "in the right way", says a top Suffolk farmer in the wake of the latest State of Nature report.

Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) has described the latest State of Nature report as "grim reading" - but said it did offer hope that the situation can be turned around.

The report paints a stark picture of nature losses across the UK - with agriculture identified as a key driver for losses in biodiversity.

But NFFN believes the industry can play a leading role in reversing the trends.

NFFN member Patrick Barker, who farms at Westhorpe, near Stowmarket, alongside his cousin, Brian, has strived to ensure the family farms in a conservation-minded way - while taking care of the business's bottom line.

He believes it is possible to do both - and that his family's farm proves the point. The NFFN is calling for "well-funded, well-delivered and targeted schemes" to help agricultural businesses tackle the problems highlighted in the State of Nature report.

Patrick - who grow cereals and other arable crops across the 550-acre farm in north Suffolk - has adopted a nature-friendly approach and also runs an environmental contracting business from the farm.

“For me, farming in this way is about four things - business, wildlife, carbon, and people," he said.

"It's about having a productive farm that makes money and is good for our bank balance. This way of farming is also good for wildlife. It's good for our farm's carbon footprint.

“I think everyone has a real intrinsic love for the countryside in some way, shape or form. It's just finding how we turn that into a way of farming that benefits everything and everyone.

“It's about providing a balanced landscape, a balanced business, and supporting people to do it in the right way.”

NFFN chief executive Martin Lines warned the loss of biodiversity will affect the UK's ability of feed itself well in the future, and its ability to adapt to a rapidly-warming world.

“With significant, rapid declines being demonstrated throughout our natural world, the State of Nature Report makes grim reading," he admitted.

But he added: “Despite the worrying picture the report paints, it provides hope that things can be turned around.

"Through the widespread adoption of nature friendly farming we can restore nature in our fields and in our landscapes, for the benefit of long term business resilience and economic prosperity. We now need a clear vision for the future alongside the political will to make this a reality.”

The report says increasing nature-friendly farming, along with sustainable forestry and fishing, is one of five areas which are key to how the UK is responding to the biodiversity challenges it faces.

But there is still "a long way to go" in getting more farms to participate in nature-friendly work, it adds. There were also mixed results from farms participating in agri-environment schemes.

Agriculture is currently responsible for around 11% of the UK’s emissions and agricultural intensification since the post-war period is the biggest driver of biodiversity decline in the country, the report says.

UK farmland birds declined by around 59% between 1970 and 2019.

The study calls for more research into ways of accurately measuring the effectiveness of agri-
environment schemes.

Post-Brexit agricultural policy - including the current Environment Improvement Plan target
in England requiring that 65 to 80% of landowners and farmers to adopt nature-friendly farming on at least 10 to 15% of their land by 2030 could be enough to halt biodiversity declines in lowland landscapes, it says.

However, priority and specialist bird species and upland regions would need more land
than this to be in higher-tier schemes, it adds.