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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the accessibility of Government-supported agri-science programmes to small and medium-sized farms in (a) Fylde and (b) Lancashire.

Since 2021, the Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) has been Defra’s flagship programme for supporting research and innovation in farming in England to help farmers, growers and foresters increase productivity, sustainability and resilience. FIP encourages smaller organisations to be involved in the innovation process. Of the 603 organisations that have received funding through the programme to date, 480 have been small or medium in size.

In February the Secretary of State announced a further £63 million for competitions starting in 2025/6. This includes the Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) fund with £20.6 million across 2025/6 which is focussed on farmer-led, smaller-scale innovation grants and supports trialling new technology and methods on farms. ADOPT is aimed at on farm trials which can deliver quick results, with project costs between £50,000 and £100,000. We have funded a support hub, led by ADAS, to encourage famers to collaborate and to increase participation rates. In addition to this we will also pay support grants of £2,500 to allow smaller farming operations to access our grants by covering professional fees related to applications.