Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the mean size in hectares was of businesses ranked in the top 4% of SFI annual revenue payments by October 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The mean size of a businesses ranked in the top 4% of Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) annual revenue payments as of October 2025 is 803 hectares.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 reduce reliance on imported fruit and vegetables.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to our horticulture sector and its role in providing fresh home-grown produce that helps to feed the nation.
Future support for the horticulture sector is being considered as part of Defra’s work to simplify and rationalise agricultural grant funding, ensuring that grants deliver the most benefit for food security and taxpayer value. The new Farming and Food Partnership Board, bringing together industry and government leaders, will also develop tailored growth plans for sectors including horticulture.
27% of the Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) grant awards to date, over £41 million, has been granted to research projects benefiting the horticulture sector, offering targeted opportunities for fruit and vegetable businesses to become more profitable, resilient, and sustainable. Further opportunities for farmer and grower led trials to test ideas and solutions are also now available in FIP via ADOPT grants, and we have committed to allocating at least £200 million to FIP through to 2030.
Wider Government support includes: the five-year extension to the Seasonal Worker visa route, providing much needed stability and certainty to businesses and extending the easement on import checks on medium risk fruit and vegetables ahead of the new SPS agreement deal with the EU.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to increase domestic fruit and vegetable production to improve food security.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to our horticulture sector and its role in providing fresh home-grown produce that helps to feed the nation.
Future support for the horticulture sector is being considered as part of Defra’s work to simplify and rationalise agricultural grant funding, ensuring that grants deliver the most benefit for food security and taxpayer value. The new Farming and Food Partnership Board, bringing together industry and government leaders, will also develop tailored growth plans for sectors including horticulture.
27% of the Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) grant awards to date, over £41 million, has been granted to research projects benefiting the horticulture sector, offering targeted opportunities for fruit and vegetable businesses to become more profitable, resilient, and sustainable. Further opportunities for farmer and grower led trials to test ideas and solutions are also now available in FIP via ADOPT grants, and we have committed to allocating at least £200 million to FIP through to 2030.
Wider Government support includes: the five-year extension to the Seasonal Worker visa route, providing much needed stability and certainty to businesses and extending the easement on import checks on medium risk fruit and vegetables ahead of the new SPS agreement deal with the EU.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the total annual payments made to businesses under the SFI for actions SAM1, NUM1, IPM1 and HRW1 (broken down by individual action) were at 1 October 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As of 1st October 2025, there were 32,405, Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements which included actions (C)SAM1, (C) NUM1, (C)HRW1 or (C)IPM1.
The number of agreements containing these actions and the value of these actions broken down by individual action are shown in the table below.
option code | Number of Agreements | Total Value of Action within Agreement (£) |
CHRW1 | 5,766 | 8,754,000 |
CIPM1 | 7,162 | 24,258,000 |
CNUM1 | 7,593 | 14,852,000 |
CSAM1 | 9,179 | 17,963,000 |
HRW1 | 10,191 | 21,709,000 |
IPM1 | 15,656 | 53,025,000 |
NUM1 | 16,583 | 32,435,000 |
SAM1 | 18,421 | 51,638,000 |
To Note: An Agreement can have multiple options so for example may have NUM1, SAM1 & IPM1 so may be counted multiple times under number of agreements in the table above.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as of 1st October 2025 how many SFI agreements included actions SAM1, NUM1, HRW1 and IPM1 broken down by individual action.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As of 1st October 2025, there were 32,405, Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements which included actions (C)SAM1, (C) NUM1, (C)HRW1 or (C)IPM1.
The number of agreements containing these actions and the value of these actions broken down by individual action are shown in the table below.
option code | Number of Agreements | Total Value of Action within Agreement (£) |
CHRW1 | 5,766 | 8,754,000 |
CIPM1 | 7,162 | 24,258,000 |
CNUM1 | 7,593 | 14,852,000 |
CSAM1 | 9,179 | 17,963,000 |
HRW1 | 10,191 | 21,709,000 |
IPM1 | 15,656 | 53,025,000 |
NUM1 | 16,583 | 32,435,000 |
SAM1 | 18,421 | 51,638,000 |
To Note: An Agreement can have multiple options so for example may have NUM1, SAM1 & IPM1 so may be counted multiple times under number of agreements in the table above.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in reference to HCWS1230, 8 January 2026, when the Farming Roadmap will be published; what timescales it will set out for future changes to farm support; and how it will provide long-term certainty for farmers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Farming Roadmap will set the course of farming in England for the next 25 years. Over the last year, the Government has held workshops with farmers, industry leaders and farming and environmental groups to identify themes and content the roadmap should include. Defra will aim to publish later this year (2026).
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to HCWS1230, what funding she has allocated to the place-based uplands approach announced at the Oxford Farming Conference; what objectives it is intended to achieve; and how food production will be safeguarded within that approach.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government knows how important upland landscapes are for farming, nature and rural economies, and is committed to investing in this work to deliver meaningful benefits for upland communities. By empowering local decision‑making, Defra will unlock the economic potential of the uplands and ensure that the people who live and work there can shape their future and decide what will help their communities thrive.
Defra has allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. The department will say more about funding for the place-based uplands approach in due course.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to HCWS1230, when the Farming and Food Partnership Board will be established; what criteria will be used to ensure balanced representation across the farming and food sectors; and what role the Board will play in the development of future farming policy.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is committed to resetting the relationship between the Government and food and farming sectors as a genuine partnership. More details on the timeline for establishing the new board will be made available as soon as possible.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the mean and median total income per business for the Sustainable Farming Incentive was in the year to October 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Farm businesses can hold multiple Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements under the SFI scheme. As of October 2025, there were 44,474 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements including SFI 23 and SFI 24. Over the full term of the agreement the mean value of these agreements was £57,000 and the median value of these agreements was £32,000.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to HCWS1230, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed reforms to the Sustainable Farming Incentive on levels of domestic food production, farm profitability and the distribution of scheme payments; how the revised scheme will address the previous concentration of funding; and when revised actions, payment rates and transitional arrangements will be published.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Some of the main improvements the Government is making to the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer are:
Previously, 90% of SFI spending went on fewer than 40 of the 102 actions available and a quarter of SFI money goes to just 4% of farms. This is not fair. Therefore, Ministers are considering ways to address this, such as introducing an agreement value cap, and are making improvements to the offer to ensure more farmers can access funding.