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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage the practice of regenerative agriculture.

Countryside Stewardship is delivering on the Government’s ambition of protecting and improving the natural environment by supporting 30,000 farmers, foresters and land owners to carry out environmental works.

The focus of the scheme is on conserving and restoring wildlife habitats, managing flood risk, reducing water pollution and planting woodland.

As of December 2019, 2.83 million hectares of land was under an agri-environment agreement and 2,700 hectares of new woodland had been planted under the scheme.

Farmers and other land managers who sign up to new Countryside Stewardship agreements during the Transition Period will be well-placed in the future to participate in the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme, subject to successfully applying.

ELM will be the cornerstone of our new agricultural policy. Founded on the principle of “public money for public goods”, ELM is intended to provide a powerful vehicle for achieving the goals of the 25 Year Environment Plan and commitment to net zero emissions, while supporting our rural economy.

Farmers and other land managers may enter into agreements to be paid for delivering the following public goods set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan:

• clean air
• clean and plentiful water
• thriving plants and wildlife
• protection from and mitigation of environmental hazards
• mitigation of and adaptation to climate change
• beauty, heritage and engagement with the natural environment

Beyond agriculture, nature-based solutions are key to tackling climate change and averting its impacts. The UK Government is deploying such solutions to improve our natural environment.

Where nature-based solutions contribute towards the delivery of these public goods, they may be funded by ELM. We will determine in more detail what ELM will pay for as we further develop the scheme and are engaging with stakeholders to inform this.