Farming budget ‘must be protected as drought looms'

Leader Live

21-05-2025

The call comes as the latest Met Office data show swathes of the country have had a record number of days with little or no rain so far this year.
Analysis by the PA news agency found central England, north-east England, north-west England and north Wales, and Northern Ireland, have all had a record number of days with less than 0.1mm of rain since January 1, in records dating back to 1931.
In national records stretching further back, the UK is experiencing the driest spring in more than a century, which has put crops and habitats under pressure and prompted warnings to millions of households they may face water restrictions this summer.
In the face of the dry weather, the heads of major farming organisations and conservation charities have urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to protect the farming budget – which is the biggest spend for nature as well as supporting farmers – in the spending review.
Without investment to make agriculture and landscapes resilient to the extremes that climate change is bringing and to protect the environment, food security and legal targets to restore nature will be at risk, they warn.
Farming payments in England have switched from EU-era subsidies to funding for 'public goods' such as healthy soil, wildflowers, clean water and hedgerows, and last autumn the Government heralded a 'record' £5 billion over two years for sustainable farming.
But the biggest plank of the new approach, the sustainable farming incentive (SFI), was abruptly closed to applications in March after the money was all spent, with a reformed scheme not set to reopen until early next year.
And with budgets across departments under pressure in the spending review, there are concerns the nature-friendly farming budget will not be maintained in the squeeze.
Speaking side-by-side from a countryside conference, National Farmers' Union president Tom Bradshaw and RSPB chief executive Beccy Speight warned the Government would not hit legislated targets to reverse declines in nature by 2030 without the funding.
Ms Speight said: 'More than 70% of the UK is farmed, and if we're going to stand a chance of hitting these nature recovery targets and actually reversing the situation we've got now, then absolutely, farmers are crucial to that.'
She added: 'We're facing into these drought conditions, and farmers, livestock farmers, arable farmers, are really struggling in terms of being able to plan ahead and looking at what climate change is already bringing to us.
'It's got to be about resilience, and it's the kind of activities that this money funds that will build that resilience into the food system, as well as build resilience into our natural world.
'The challenges we all know we're facing in terms of climate, in terms of nature, and then in terms of sustainable food production, are very, very real now, very, very stark.
'And this budget is the budget that enables those things to be delivered.'
Mr Bradshaw said a large number of farmers needed to be involved in the environmental schemes to deliver on the Government's ambitions for nature, as well as support farming businesses that are under huge pressure, and the heritage and culture of rural communities of which farmers are a key part.
'Without a large enough budget, the budget will either be cut too thinly and it won't be able to have the impact that it needs to, or it'll end up being targeted in specific landscapes and therefore it won't be a scheme which is open to all, and won't be able to deliver across a broad area of the country,' he warned.
'The driest spring on record is obviously a good precursor to why we need to invest now to safeguard for the future, and the resilience of our food system is something that everyone benefits from,' he added.
They are being joined in their call to protect the farming budget for agriculture and the environment by the National Trust, Woodland Trust, Nature Friendly Farming Network, Green Alliance and Wildlife And Countryside Link.
Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network said: 'Nature is the foundation of food production – as this drought makes painfully clear.
'If we want farms to stay profitable and food to stay on shelves, we must tackle the climate and nature crises head-on.
'Investing in nature-friendly farming is essential economic policy,' he warned.
The nature-friendly farming budget pays for measures including those that protect and improve soil, such as cover crops, making it more resilient to extremes of wet weather and drought which have hit the UK in recent years, enabling farmers to sow their crops and see them grow better.
Reducing inputs such as pesticides, and supporting natural pest predators and pollinators through wildflower-strips, hedgerows and beetle banks in fields also reduces costs for farmers and supports wildlife.
The latest daily Met Office rainfall figures show central England has had 74 days with less than 0.1mm of rain between January 1 and May 19, north-east England has had 71 days, north-west England and north Wales have had 64 days, and Northern Ireland has had 54 days with no or little rain.
South=east England has had 76 days with no or little rain, the most since 1949, south-west England and south Wales has had 61 days, the most since 1953, and Scotland has had 35 days with less than 0.1mm of rain, the most since 1974.