Defra’s post-Brexit approach to the transition away from EU farm subsidies has created “widespread uncertainty and risks for the sector”, a new report by the National Audit Office has claimed.
The body’s report into the former Conservative government’s handling of its farming and countryside brief at Defra – published this week – found the department’s “iterative” approach to phasing out Common Agriculture Policy payments and replacing them with its often-maligned Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) had “made it difficult for farmers to plan their businesses”.
Defra’s approach had allowed it to “take corrective action in response to feedback” to improve the schemes over time, the NAO report found. Farmers’ views on key elements of ELMS such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive had also, gradually improved, the report added, while take-up was “rapidly increasing”.
However, some stakeholders told the body that farmers’ uncertainty over how schemes would develop and Defra’s caution over sharing information, in areas such as land-use change and its impact on food production and farm viability, were “undermining trust”.
And amid an ongoing financial crisis across the sector, it warned more than a third of farm businesses covered by Defra’s modelling would likely need to make productivity improvements to maintain viability after 2028 – given the reductions in direct payments.
The assumption that farmers would become more productive was also “uncertain”, the report added.
The NAO report cited Defra’s most recent farmer opinion tracker last October, which revealed 48% of farmers were “not at all positive about their future in farming”, while just 35% were confident in the ability of Defra and its agencies to deliver changes to schemes and regulations.
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It also found that the government department expected productivity gains and increased crop yields to offset the impact of its agri-environment schemes on food production in the long term.
But given how it had not yet published analysis into the impact such schemes and the potential changes in land use would have on food production, it would be “difficult for parliament, the sector and the public to understand and scrutinise what government is trying to do”, the NAO suggested, while adding farmers needed more advice to help them through the transition.
Responding to the report, Labour’s new farming minister Daniel Zeichner highlighted how “confidence amongst farmers has been at record lows”.
Farmers had been “struggling with extreme weather events like flooding and sudden huge rises in input costs, been undermined by damaging trade deals, and rocked by the chop and change of farming schemes”, he added.
“The new government will restore stability and confidence amongst farmers. That is why we will not be over-turning the applecart – we are fully committed to ELMS. We will optimise schemes and grants in an orderly way, ensuring they produce the right outcomes for all farmers, while delivering food security and nature recovery in a just and equitable way.”
The new government would “ensure that our schemes work for those farmers who have been too often ignored – including small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms”, he added.
Defra said it would confirm the next steps in the rollout of SFI and other ELM schemes “shortly”.
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