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 collaboration between farmers.

The new £30 million Farmer Collaboration Fund helps farmers and land managers work together to share knowledge, reduce costs and build more resilient businesses. We plan to inform successful applicants for round 1 in early November and open round 2 in Spring 2027.

Defra is also supporting collaboration on water resilience through Water Abstractor Groups, which help abstractors identify collective solutions to local challenges.