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 support (a) low carbon farming and (b) agricultural innovation.

We are supporting farmers by providing one off and ongoing payments to help farmers decarbonise agricultural emissions. We will pay farmers and land managers to go beyond regulatory requirements to deliver carbon savings through our new farming offers.

We have a range of actions farmers can take through our Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes that will support farm decarbonisation. These measures include integrating cover crops and nitrogen-fixing break crops in rotations which can help increase carbon storage and reduce emissions in agriculture.

We are supporting the application of innovation, science and technology to help reduce emissions through our Farming Innovation Programme and the Farming Investment Fund. We will also pay farmers for improvements to animal health and welfare which will support lower emissions and improve productivity.

Our aim, as set out in the Net Zero Growth Plan, is that farmers and land managers can be supported with payments through our ELM schemes and also attract greater finance from the private sector for sequestering carbon, improving water quality and increasing biodiversity.

In this plan Defra has also committed to developing a harmonised approach to measuring carbon on farms and will set out how we will support farmers to understand their emission sources through carbon audits by 2024.

The £270 million Farming Innovation Programme supports industry-led research and development in agriculture and horticulture. All projects support productivity and environmental outcomes that will benefit farmers and growers in England. This investment is enabling more farmers and growers to become involved in agricultural R&D, helping to maximise the impact of R&D investment in innovation.