Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 15
Second Report - Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition
Published 28 Oct 2021
Paragraph 87
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
High quality advice, which is appropriate to the individual farm and takes into account the specific local conditions, is essential if farmers are to be productive and deliver environmental benefits. We acknowledge Defra’s intention that the Sustainable Farming Incentive should not require expert advice, but this should not mean that opportunities are missed to help farmers go further through effective facilitation. In particular, peer-to-peer learning should form an important element of the agricultural transition. Seeing others turn to more sustainable practices, and succeed, will play a valuable role in giving many farmers the confidence to engage with ELM. Defra should fund and facilitate knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer learning among farmers to drive scheme uptake and effective delivery of public goods. Defra should also ensure that farmers and land managers have access to effective local facilitators, who can help them improve their delivery.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Second Report - Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition (HC 78), paragraph 87, 28 October 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 20 January 2022 (deadline 28 December 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it "strongly agrees" that the agricultural transition must work for farmers and contribute to environmental objectives, while declining some specific recommendations.
- On the phasing out of Direct Payments, the Government says it is "not planning to change the profile of Direct Payments reductions", stating that suggesting otherwise would create "unnecessary and unhelpful uncertainty".
- On the budget, it will honour the £2.4 billion annual commitment to 2024/25 but is "unable to commit" beyond that, as future budgets will be decided by future governments.
- On engagement, it agrees it "can and should do more" to explain how engagement has informed scheme design, and plans to increase engagement activity in 2022.
- On whole-farm standards, it does not mandate entering whole farms into the Sustainable Farming Incentive, citing challenges, but is "continuing to investigate" land management plans through the pilot.