Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Paragraph: 88
Evidence suggests that some farmers currently do not pay for environmental advice because it is...
Conclusion
Evidence suggests that some farmers currently do not pay for environmental advice because it is not deemed commercially relevant to them. As the focus of farm payments moves to public goods, it is important that these farmers are supported to access the advice that they will need to ensure they are not left behind. Defra should explain in its response to this Report how it will ensure that a reluctance to pay for advice does not inhibit the uptake of ELM and the delivery of public goods.
Paragraph Reference:
88
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
We are committed to providing quality advice to farmers working with the market where it makes sense to do so. We want the schemes to be user friendly, and easy to access and engage with, so that advice can focus on where it will really add value. The Future Farming Resilience Fund has been developed to provide free business support to farmers and land managers during the agricultural transition. Defra group advisers will also provide free support to encourage good engagement and ensure high quality agreements. The intention is that the Sustainable Farming Incentive will be a straightforward, largely self-service scheme, supported by high quality, very accessible technical guidance – freely available to all farmers and land managers whether they are in schemes or not. We will test this during the pilot and early rollout and respond quickly to the feedback we receive. We expect the Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery schemes to need a greater level of advisory support than the Sustainable Farming Incentive. We are exploring through our tests and trials and detailed policy design work the likely need for advice in these schemes, how best it could be delivered, and who is best placed to provide it. We also want to support land managers to develop their skills and experience of delivering public goods. This includes how we best support peer-to-peer advice and sharing of good practice, which is being explored in the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot scheme. The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture is also exploring setting up special interest groups to support knowledge exchange between farmers. We have also been clear that we intend to support collaboration in both Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery. We found in our tests and trials that local facilitators can really help people work together effectively. We plan to work with farmers and other experts to set up a new facilitation offer that builds on the successes and lessons to be learned from the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund, which remains open to anyone eligible for agri-environment schemes. In addition, through our Landscape Recovery pilots we will test how we can best support groups of land managers to deliver large-scale land-use change projects, including through our funded project development phase.