Plenty of holes in Defra Farming and Countryside plans

The National Audit Office has reviewed Defra's Farming and Countryside programme and has a number of criticisms to make.   

The Farming and Countryside Programme aims to fundamentally change England’s farms. The stakes are high for the environment, food production and the viability of the sector. To achieve the Programme’s objectives, many farmers need to transform the way they farm, and Defra’s modelling shows the extent of productivity improvements that are needed for farm businesses to maintain viability.

Take-up of schemes is rapidly increasing, but some of what Defra is paying for now are actions that, for many farmers, do not result in significant immediate change to farming practices. Instead, they are expected to encourage farmers to do more for the environment in the long-term.

Defra expects the removal of direct payments to stimulate most of the required productivity improvements. It says it has seen some improvements already as farmers adapt to life without direct payments, but the evidence is inconclusive on whether the scale of change needed will be achieved.

Farmers need quality advice and support to adapt, but Defra has not yet ensured that they can access what they need. Around half of England’s farmers say they are not at all positive about their future in farming.

The Programme will continue to change, but Defra has not yet provided a long-term view of how it expects the Programme to develop, for example, in terms of the balance of funding between SFI and more ambitious schemes.

Defra’s iterative approach to Programme design makes it difficult for farmers to plan their businesses to remain viable, to continue to produce the food we need and to achieve the Programme’s environmental objectives. Currently, gaps in the Programme’s data on environmental outcomes is limiting Defra’s ability to fully understand the impact on the environment, or whether it is on track to achieve value for money.

Full report here: https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/farming-and-countryside-programme-1.pdf

What chances of a green agricultural policy?

In the latest issue of Euro Choices Viviane Gravey asks whether Brexit will lead to a green agricultural policy. She notes, 'while UK governments have pioneered and pushed for many green instruments in the CAP, their overarching priority remained to limit funding – both EU and national – for agriculture.' Moreover, the four nations of the UK have developed divergent policies under the flexible umbrella of the 2014-20 CAP.'

She points out that 'the UK's long‐standing reluctance to increase EU‐related spending has repeatedly constrained the UK's commitment to agri‐environment schemes.'

She concludes, 'while the UK government's current commitment to "put the environment first" calls for radical post‐Brexit change, the policy‐making process does not augur well for such change. Instead, it bears sharp similarities to CAP debates old and new. Within the EU, the UK's commitment to greening agriculture was repeatedly undermined by its opposition to increased spending for CAP and its growing euroscepticism.'

'Outside of the EU, the UK's renewed commitment to greening agriculture risks faltering once more due to broader national and international political tensions. These difficulties are linked to fraught power sharing under devolution, the challenges of guaranteeing a shared environmental baseline across the UK, and agreeing a fair budget for agriculture policy throughout the four nations, as well as the uncertain contour of any UK‐EU deal and future UK trade policy.'