Level funding for farmers

HM Treasury has stated that level funding for farmers in the form of direct payments will be made available in 2020: Support confirmed

Level funding does mean a decline in real terms because of inflation, currently running (CPI) at fractionally over 3 per cent. The basket of goods used by farmers as inputs may differ from the CPI rate and indeed from one farm to another.

The NFU welcomed the statement, but remains concerned about future trade policy and imports: NFU response

Quite what form the new ELMS payments will take remains to be seen. I have heard that at least three versions have been discussed within Defra. The key is to develop a scheme that provides genuine incentives for farmers to engage in environmentally friendly behaviour whilst giving a fair deal for taxpayers.

I am still not convinced that sufficient attention is being paid to climate change, although that was a major deficiency of the CAP where attempts to introduce a climate change pillar were (in my view) defeated by the agri-industry lobby.

Why we need research on vegetables

A celebration of seventy years of crop research at the University of Warwick's Wellesbourne campus: Seventy years

One of the greatest privileges of my academic career was to take part in two projects with scientists at Wellesbourne. I recently completed a book chapter relating to one of them on biopesticides: RELU project

The crops research centre is continuing practical work on biopesticides through the use of levy money: Amber project

As more people become vegetarians or vegans, but, perhaps more importantly, others reduce their meat consumption, the research done at Wellesbourne is more important than ever.