The government has promised to introduce a new deal to support farmers after data showed confidence among the sector is still at record lows.
New Defra figures show half of farmers don’t feel positive about their future in the sector, according to the latest Farming Opinion Tracker for England, which offered an overview of sentiment among farmers between end of April and beginning of June.
Of those who said they were making changes to their businesses, a quarter said they planned to reduce the size of their operations, and 14% planned to leave farming entirely in the next three to five years.
Defra said the results made clear “the need for the end of farmers being rocked by the chop and change of farming schemes”.
It pledged to introduce a new deal for farmers to address low confidence and “provide stability” for the farming sector, including “optimising Environmental Land Management schemes so they work for all farmers including those who have been too often ignored such as small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms”.
Defra secretary Steve Reed said: “The new government will restore stability and confidence in the sector, introducing a new deal for farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen food security alongside nature’s recovery.
“We will protect farmers from being undercut in trade deals, make the supply chain work more fairly, prevent shock rises in bills by switching on GB Energy, better protect them from flooding through a new Flood Resilience Taskforce and use the government’s own purchasing power to back British produce.”
Read more: As business confidence collapses, what’s worrying farmers the most in new NFU survey?
As part of the deal, Defra will also set up a new British Infrastructure Council to steer private investment in rural areas, including broadband rollout in our rural communities.
And although detail around land-use changes was scarce, the department pledged to introduce a framework that “balances long-term food security and nature recovery”.
The government tracker has been in a downward trajectory for years, as farmers have struggled with extreme weather events, like historic levels of flooding, as well as sudden huge rises in energy costs.
Of those who made changes to their farms, 83% said it was because of input price increases, and 69% said it was due to weather/climate change.
The latest survey also showed that trade agreements with other countries were a factor for 29% of farmers who made changes to their business.
British farmers have felt “undermined by damaging trade deals”, Defra said, such as the controversial Australia and New Zealand FTAs struck by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Reed also reiterated pledges to seek a new veterinary agreement with the European Union to cut red tape at the border and boost British exports.
Read more: Labour will target trade deals with Gulf countries and India
The results echoed those of the annual NFU survey published in May this year, which also showed the confidence of English and Welsh farmers was at an all-time low.
Short and mid-term confidence across the sector was at its lowest since records began in 2010, results showed.
The decline in confidence has also led to a decline in production intentions, with all farming sectors expecting to decrease production over the next year.
“Confidence amongst farmers is extremely low”, Reed added. “The work of change has now begun.”
The Soil Association policy director Brendan Costelloe said: “It has never been more important for the UK government to back British farmers, so we welcome today’s commitment to restore farmers’ confidence.
”Food production in the UK is threatened by climate change, and we cannot just import from overseas as every country faces similar challenges.
”Our farmers are custodians of 70% of the UK – we won’t solve the climate, nature and diet-related public health crises without them. But farming is vulnerable, with too few farmers able to invest in making it more resilient.”
The group was ”particularly pleased to see a renewed commitment to a land use framework, which will allow us to think about food production on a landscape scale and decide what and how we should farm, in which location”.
In an open letter to prime minister Keir Starmer last week, the Soil Association urged government to introduce a target to double the land used for British fruit and veg production using ”nature-friendly methods, including in and around our towns and cities”.
The charity also welcomes the plans to use the government’s purchasing power to back UK produce. British schools and hospitals “should be prioritising British and nature-friendly farmers”, it argued.
“Westminster must catch up with Europe and Scotland by setting a target to increase the only certifiable form of regenerative farming”, Costelloe added. “Rising demand for organic food should not be provided by imports when it could be produced by our own farmers.”
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