Shake-up of agricultural planning system needed- Norfolk farmer
This comes as Ministers told the National Farmers Union that they'll improve the largest nature-friendly farming programme
A farmer in the county is calling on the Government to shake-up the planning system- to help the industry grow.
This comes as Ministers told the National Farmers Union that they'll improve- the largest nature-friendly farming programme.
"These need to be unlocked"
Will Sargent lives and works just south of Norwich:
"We currently have a lot of hold-ups with planning, which is holding back huge parts of the industry, particularly poultry.
"It's currently very very hard to get planning for a new poultry building or in the livestock sector it's very hard to get planning for a pig farm. These need to be unlocked.
"I also think it's really positive that there's going to be more money put into the farming equipment technology fund and the farming innovation fund.
"But it's also vitally important that these commitments are carried through and that even more money is put towards it in the future. As things like this will help with efficiency.
What has been said at the National Farmers Union conference?
Farmers will be able to access £345 million for technology and green measures from seed-planting robots to putting in new hedgerows, the Environment Secretary is announcing.
Speaking at the National Farmers' Union conference, Emma Reynolds is also outlining more details of a "simpler, fairer and more stable" sustainable farming incentive scheme - the largest strand of the Government's nature-friendly farming programme.
The announcement comes as the Government tries to reset its relationship with the sector after a partial U-turn on inheritance tax levied on farm businesses and the abrupt closure of the sustainable farming incentive (SFI) a year ago.
Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds told farmers that she is "determined to give British farming the foundation it needs to grow".
"We want farm businesses that are productive profitable, and resilient.
"We want to see more British food on more tables - here at home and around the world.
"And we want a countryside that is thriving - for wildlife, for communities and for the families who have worked this land for generations."
Her comments come after a warning from NFU president Tom Bradshaw that a failure to build resilience in farming threatens domestic food production and therefore food security, national security and economic growth.
The package of funding, from the existing farming budget, includes £70 million for the "farming innovation programme" to move research projects into practical tools, and builds on a previous award of £21.5 million for schemes ranging from methane-cutting cattle feed to heatwave-proof greenhouses.
It also includes £50 million for the "farming equipment and technology fund" to help farmers invest in tech such as seed-planting robots and pesticide spreaders that reduce chemical use, allowing farm businesses to increase their efficiency and sustainability.
Ms Reynolds is also confirming a new round of environmental land management capital grants will open in July this year, with up to £225 million available for farmers to invest in on-farm infrastructure that supports environmental targets and builds resilience.
Funding will be available for measures ranging from planting hedgerows to boost wildlife, new storage tanks for slurry and natural flood management schemes such as leaky dams and wetland creation to livestock equipment that helps improve water quality.
Farmers will also be able to access on-farm poultry biosecurity reviews to tackle the risk of bird flu, and vet visits could be made mandatory for cattle, sheep and pig farmers to reinforce high standards of animal health and welfare.
The Environment Secretary is also outlining details of the reformed SFI, the biggest strand of the environmental land management scheme (Elms) which has replaced EU-era agricultural subsidies, and which closed last year as the money had all been spent.
Reforms to the SFI programme aim to share funding more fairly, after a quarter of the cash was going to just 4% of farms, and for the scheme to be simpler for farmers.
Agreements will be capped at £100,000 to prevent larger farms where many actions can be taken, using too much of the money, while the number of actions included in the scheme will be slimmed down from 102 to 71 to remove lower value-for-money options.
Five-year activities will now last three years to make the scheme more accessible, in particular for tenant farmers.
Payments for several moorland grazing options will increase and be cut for the most popular options including providing winter bird food crops, to encourage landowners to choose a wider range of actions.
The reformed scheme will open in June for small farms up to 50 hectares and those without an existing nature-friendly farming agreement, and in September for all farms.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw welcomed the announcement on investment and said the reformed SFI scheme "appears to strike the right balance between simplifying the process and maintaining flexibility".
He added: "It's good to see the recognition of the uplands by maintaining actions that support the much-loved landscapes in which they work, but we'll need to work through the wider detail of the scheme."
Mr Bradshaw said there must be transparency around the farming budget and a long-term plan for food and farming.
"The resilience of our food system can't be taken for granted - underlying profitability is essential to driving the investment needed and the resilient food system that society needs," he said.
The RSPB's head of sustainable land use policy, Alice Groom, welcomed the reformed scheme keeping many key actions for wildlife, which she said was "good news" for nature-friendly farmers working hard to bring species back from the brink.
"Government now needs to develop a sharpened sustainable farming incentive for 2027 that provides well-funded wildlife packages, routes into new agreements for the thousands of farmers signed up to expiring ones, including a significant scaling-up of access to the most ambitious higher tiers," she said.