New government Farming Roadmap launched
Mixed response for long-awaited roadmap for English farming
Defra has now published its Farming Roadmap and response to Baroness Minette Batters’ Farming Profitability Review.
The long-awaited roadmap signals Defra's ambition to support productivity, environmental delivery and resilience over the coming decades, with an indication of Defra’s intentions to see greater levels of regulation in the farming sector alongside increased support from private finance. It touches upon the vision for environmental land management schemes, including better targeting, and covers other topics including trade, skills and planning.
The CLA has welcomed the long‑term vision but stresses that immediate challenges continue to weigh heavily on farmers, and that delivery of the objectives will be key.
Similarly the CLA highlights the fact that, like many government strategies, there are plenty of nice-sounding words but little by the way of long-term financial commitments.
CLA President Gavin Lane said:
"The ambition of Defra's long-term Farming Roadmap is welcome, but for many farmers the immediate challenge is staying profitable.
"High costs, low returns and increasingly volatile weather continue to put huge pressure on farm businesses."
The roadmap must now be matched by action. Farmers need a stable policy environment, greater clarity on farming schemes, meaningful planning reform and a more joined-up approach to rural affairs across government
"Without profitable farm businesses, the government's ambitions for food production and nature recovery simply will not be achieved."
The response to Minette Batters’ Farming Profitability Review acknowledges many of the structural issues affecting profitability, including transparency in supply chains and the need for better risk management tools.
Find out more about the roadmap here. The CLA will be publishing fuller analysis in the coming week.