Farmers have warned a green scheme designed to boost sustainability and wildlife threatens to take farmland out of use.
The Government’s post-Brexit Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) are being rolled out across England, including the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).
SFI aims to reward farmers for farming practices which help produce food sustainably and protect the environment.
Stephen Holt, 66, who farms 670 acres in Northamptonshire, told The Times farmers Government subsidies are incentivising farmers to reduce domestic food production for wildlife.
Mr Holt has signed up to SFI, replacing a break crop of oil seed rape and beans between wheat harvests with a legume cover crop to help pollinators and soil health. However, he said that crop won’t be harvested for food.
He explained how input prices shot up by about 50 percent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but arable prices have fallen. As a result it is better to take Government subsidy for a year.
The farmer warned: “The huge danger in my view is there will be a severe contraction in domestic agricultural output.”
Oxfordshire farmer James Williams told the same publication he will take some 30 percent of his land out of production for a season or two, adding that if his example were to be scaled up nationally the implications for feeding Britain’s population are “only too obvious”.
The Government has said it is closely monitoring SFI for unintended consequences.
A Defra spokeswoman said: “Last month the Prime Minister (Rishi Sunak) and Secretary of State (Steve Barclay) made clear our commitment to support profitable farming businesses, including a new annual UK-wide food security index and the largest-ever grant offer for farmers, expected to total £427million.
“Our schemes pay farmers to take actions that improve the environment, but they have profitability and food production at their core. We are committed to continuing to produce at least 60 percent of the food we consume in the UK.”
Concerns for UK food self-sufficiency will be highlighted at a protest organised by the Save British Farming group near Parliament on Monday (March 25).
Farming minister Mark Spencer said: “We firmly back our farmers. British farming is at the heart of British trade, and we put agriculture at the forefront of any deals we negotiate, prioritising new export opportunities, protecting UK food standards and removing market access barriers.”
