Funding

Defra Secretary George Eustice has announced that Countryside Stewardship (CS) payments are set to increase by an average of 30 per cent.

Concerns have been raised that the new Local Nature Recovery (LNR) scheme will not initially include funding for educational or other kinds of access to farms.

The Scottish Government has rejected calls for farmers to receive compensation where beaver damage is causing a financial loss.

Government retirement schemes which only compensate for monetary loss from farming are doomed to fail, new research commissioned by Welsh Ministers has found.

That the country needs coherent solutions to the structural problems it faces around labour and creaking supply chains is nothing new. Whether it has a Government fit enough to deliver such solutions is another matter altogether.

Farmers and the Scottish Government must take positive action to avoid what NFU Scotland president Martin Kennedy described as the ’car crash’ of England’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme.

The Government has made a number of important announcements affecting farming in recent months. Abi Kay speaks to Defra Secretary George Eustice to get the inside track on the latest developments.

Now open for English arable and horticultural growers under the Farming Transformation Fund, water management grants could be very appealing to those looking to install new infrastructure.

While financial support from the Government is becoming more targeted, opportunities still exist for farmers to access grants which could facilitate improvements or perhaps a new direction of travel. 

Andy Cureton, head of research and partnerships of UK Research and Innovation says agritech can help UK agriculture and horticulture overcome the challenges it faces.