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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to incentivise (a) the rewilding of non-productive agricultural land and (b) nature-friendly farming practices.

(a)

The Government is supporting a number of initiatives to create wilder landscapes across England, as part of a broader approach to nature recovery through projects such as peatland restoration funding or agri-environment schemes. However, rewilding is not appropriate in all situations, and we must balance priorities including food production.

Landscape Recovery (LR) is an environmental land management (ELM) scheme which seeks to demonstrate the capacity for large-scale nature recovery and sustainable food production to take place in parallel. LR is for landowners and managers who want to take a more large-scale, long-term approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land. It funds ambitious landscape-scale projects through bespoke, long-term agreements lasting 20 years or more. Initially, projects are awarded a project development grant to gather further information on the outcomes of the projects and financing options. Following this, projects will sign an Implementation Agreement, setting out the details of the project and what will be delivered. The implementation phase will then begin from 2024 onwards, with agreed funding from the Government and the private sector.

(b)

In the Agricultural Transition Plan of November 2020, the Government announced ELM schemes, designed to help England’s farmers enhance their efficiency, productivity and environmental sustainability. This move from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy is the most significant reform of agricultural policy and spending in England in decades.

Sustainable food production and caring for the environment can and must go hand in hand. Our ELM schemes will ensure our long-term food security by investing in the foundations of food production: healthy soil, water and biodiverse ecosystems. They have been developed so that there is an offer for all farm types, including for tenant farmers.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pays farmers for actions that support food production and can help improve farm productivity and resilience, while protecting and improving the environment. It is being rolled out incrementally, with the full offer available by the end of 2024. It is straightforward for farmers to apply and manage their agreement, and they will receive quarterly payments. We will also pay a new SFI management payment to recognise the administrative costs for farmers entering into and managing an SFI agreement.

Countryside Stewardship (CS) pays farmers and land managers to look after and improve the environment in specific habitats, features and local areas on their land. There will be an extra incentive through CS Plus for land managers to join up across local areas to deliver bigger and better results. We are improving the way CS operates, including expanding and refining the scope of the scheme, simplifying processes and making inspections fairer and more proportionate. We have increased the payment rates of CS in response to rising input costs.

Farmers and land managers can be in the SFI and CS at the same time, so long as we are not paying for the same actions twice on the same land and the actions are compatible.