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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of flooded and saturated farmland on farming and food production, following recent data from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, which show that soil moisture levels at most of the sites it monitors were at high or above capacity in December 2023 and January 2024.

The Government recognises the impact flooded and saturated farmland has on farming and food production and sympathises with those affected.

On 6 January, we announced we would set up the Farming Recovery Fund to support farmers affected by exceptional flooding. The focus of the Fund is in those local authority areas where the Flood Recovery Framework has been activated. Farmers who have been impacted by flooding in these areas will be written to by the Rural Payments Agency inviting them to apply for a grant of up to £25,000 to support them in restoring agricultural land to the conditions it was in before the flooding.

The Government has recently announced £75 million funding for Internal Drainage Boards to protect agricultural land and rural communities from flooding, helping areas recover from recent flooding events and modernising infrastructure to lower costs for farmers and increase their resilience to climate change.