Today the government is proud to celebrate Back British Farming Day. Our farmers underpin our national food security and are at the heart of our rural communities. British food is the best in the world and this government wants to do all it can to support hard-working British farmers to produce it. The Government are delighted to announce that they are backing industry-led action that helps customers to ‘buy British’ when they shop online and are supporting the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s ‘We Eat Balanced’ campaign, which endorses the excellent taste and quality of home-grown meat and dairy products.
It has been a busy year for me and my ministers. We have been out across the country speaking to farmers at agricultural shows, visiting farmers and
Our farmers play a crucial role in driving economic growth, contributing £127 billion to the UK’s economic prosperity in 2021, an increase of 13% since 2020. As the Prime Minister stated in his recent letter to farmers, the growth of our food and farming industry underpins the welfare of our entire country. This government is backing British farming by investing £2.4 billion into the sector each year of this parliament, helping to support our farmers to be profitable and resilient, while producing food sustainably and protecting our precious countryside. The Minister has also been taking action; from our Food Strategy which set out the commitment to continuing to produce at least 60% of the food we consume, to the pledges made at the first ever UK ‘Farm to Fork’ Summit in Downing Street in May.
Maintaining cashflow
The Government have already invested over £133 million in grant funding this year alone to drive innovation, support food production and maintain world-leading animal welfare standards. The Government are making continued progress towards the target of 70% of farmers in our agri-environmental schemes by 2028, which helps deliver our target outcomes for farming, food and the environment. There has been significant uptake of Environmental Land Management schemes, with 32,000 Countryside Stewardship agreements already in place across England for 2023, representing a 94% increase in uptake since 2020.
As we move away from the EU’s bureaucratic land-based payments system towards our new Environmental Land Management schemes, the Government are taking the opportunity to radically improve their service for farmers, responding to their feedback about how best we can do this. The new and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 – which has 23 actions on offer for farmers - is currently accepting expressions of interest and will start accepting applications from 18 September. Today, in recognition of the challenges faced with inflation and rising input costs, we are confirming that farmers who have a live Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 (SFI) agreement before the end of the year, will receive an accelerated payment in the first month of their agreement, helping with cashflow and ensuring SFI works for farm businesses.
Supporting our farmers
Today we will further deliver on our commitments to back British farmers with:
• confirmation that farmers producing sustainable British food under our environmental land management schemes will be able to use them to help meet public procurement standards, benefiting our British farmers and allowing the public sector to benefit from more excellent British food.
• £15 million for farmers to install rooftop solar equipment, opening later this year, backing their energy security and cutting costs long term.
• plans to allocate £15 million to farmers and growers in England to fund the purchase of innovative robotic and automated equipment.
• support for our food and drinks exports, which bring £24 billion to the British economy by launching a recruitment drive to appoint an additional five agri-food attaches to boost the UK’s agri-food exports.
• support for small abattoirs, which are crucial to a sustainable livestock sector:
The Minister has listened to the concerns of smaller abattoir owners and are identifying opportunities to cut unnecessary burdens, making it easier for them to operate and support farmers in reaching local and international markets while maintaining our world-leading standards. For example, the Government are working to explore the removal of the requirement for official vets to carry out post-mortem inspections in certain smaller abattoirs.
RT HON THERESE COFFEY SECRETARY OF STATE
