Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of extreme weather events on small-scale farms in the last two years.

Defra has made no assessment of the potential impacts of extreme weather on small farms.

The Government has allocated £11.8bn to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament, including £5.9bn for environmental farming schemes. Defra is focusing efforts on actions with multiple benefits: for example, improving soil health so soil can hold more water, which both reduces flood risk in extreme rainfall (winter 2026) and drought risk in extreme dry weather (summer 2025). Later this year Defra will open the Sustainable Farming Incentive offer in two windows: the first from June 2026 for small farms and also farms without existing Environmental Land Management revenue agreements; the second from September for all farms.

Farmers contribute to and are affected by weather-related challenges. The measures the government is introducing will help British farming thrive and boost farmers’ resilience to extreme weather while protecting this country’s water resources and meeting environmental goals.