Suffolk farmer says £65m drought support is 'good start' but warns more will be needed
The package includes an additional £50m for the Sustainable Farming Incentive
A Suffolk farmer has welcomed a £65 million Government package aimed at helping agriculture cope with drought, but says it will not be enough to secure farms against increasingly extreme weather.
The Government announced the support after what it described as the driest July on record in England and Wales, with around three-quarters of England currently in drought.
East Anglia is among the areas affected, and the Environment Agency recorded 302 spray irrigation licences subject to Section 57 restrictions in the region in the week to 12 August.
The package includes an additional £50m for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2026, taking its budget to £290m, alongside up to £15m to support on-farm reservoirs.
Ministers have also announced greater flexibility for farmers in environmental schemes, changes intended to make building reservoirs easier and measures aimed at improving access to water during drought conditions.
'It's probably not enough'
Ryan McCormack, farm manager at Dennington Hall Farms in East Suffolk and a member of the National Farmers' Union's National Crops Board, said the announcement offered some hope after another difficult growing season.
But asked whether £65m would be enough, he said:
"That's a difficult question. No, it's probably not enough in the grand scheme of things, but it's a good start."
Mr McCormack said the additional SFI funding was welcome, but argued the money allocated towards reservoirs would only begin to address the scale of the challenge.
He added: "Farms are struggling, yields are down. So yeah, it's trying to help everybody for the short term, medium term and long term."
The NFU has also described the Government package as an "important step", but warned farmers are experiencing what it called a "huge crisis of cashflow and confidence".
It said sustained hot and dry weather had contributed to an early harvest and low yields, while poor grass growth had forced some livestock and dairy farmers to use feed stocks normally reserved for winter.
Calls to capture more winter rainfall
Mr McCormack said improving the country's ability to capture and store water would be crucial if farms are to withstand future droughts.
He called for planning rules around farm reservoirs to be made easier and for farmers to be able to work with the Environment Agency to access water when it is most needed.
"We know that the weather is changing. We know that it's becoming more and more extreme and we're seeing droughts more often in the spring and early summer, just when the plants need it," he said.
"We need to try and capture the water in the winter time to allow us to use it in drought times."
The Government's package includes measures aimed at doing that, including changes to reduce barriers to reservoir construction and simplify water access arrangements.
Ministers say an updated National Planning Policy Framework will set out further details, while the Government is also working with the NFU on a review of permitted development rights for on-farm reservoirs.
Mr McCormack said farms also needed to become more resilient to both ends of increasingly extreme weather conditions.
He said heavy winter rainfall was often lost before farmers faced the opposite problem during dry springs and summers.
"We need to be able to hold it, capture it, store it, so that when we get to the other side of the extreme, i.e. the droughts and the high temperatures, we've got the water that fell within the winter held on farms to be used when we experience the droughts," he said.
Government: farmers should not carry risk alone
The Government says England has experienced three droughts in five years and argues farmers should not have to shoulder the risks associated with a changing climate alone.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the ability to produce food domestically was a matter of national security and said the Government was providing more support for farms, helping reservoirs to be built and improving access to water during shortages.
He said: "Farmers are at the sharp end of a changing climate, and they should not be carrying that risk alone."
Environment Secretary Angela Eagle said farmers were facing "some of the toughest conditions in decades", and said the package was intended both to provide immediate support and build resilience for the future.
The Government says the dry weather is not expected to affect national food security and that it is continuing work to strengthen the resilience of food supply chains.
'A little bit of hope'
Despite welcoming the announcement, Mr McCormack said farmers were still waiting for more detail about how some of the measures would work in practice.
He referred to previous changes to the SFI and said he hoped the latest commitments would result in longer-term improvements.
"We haven't had all the details and how that's going to look and what's going to actually happen and where it's going to be allocated in its specific form," he said.
"But it is a little bit of hope. There is a lifeline. At least they're listening. The Government is listening and hopefully we can move forward and work together."