Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 23
23
The Department asserted that farmer confidence and trust in its plans is improving.
Conclusion
The Department asserted that farmer confidence and trust in its plans is improving. The Farmer Opinion Tracker survey carried out in October 2020 found that only 30% of farmers said they had all or most of the information they needed to plan their business. The Department told us that its more recent survey, carried out in April 2021, showed this figure had improved to 40%. It expected the results to have further improved since then due to the release of detailed information about the SFI pilot over the summer. However, it did not have any data on farmer opinions after this information was released. A separate survey carried out by the RPA from January to March 2021 found that only 4% of respondents were ‘very prepared’ for upcoming changes in farming and 37% ‘not at all prepared’. In addition, 41% of respondents to that survey said they did not know what SFI was.66 In view of these dire statistics the Department needs to radically review their communication strategy to inform the whole of the agricultural industry of the benefits and impacts of these changes proposed under ELM. 65 Qq 46–47, 63, 89 66 Qq 99–101; C&AG’s report para 3.16, Figure 7 Environmental Land Management Scheme 19 3 The long-term impact of the scheme Measuring the success of the scheme
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5.7 The government strategy is working in terms of raising awareness of and building trust in the changes, as seen with early take up of the government productivity grants and Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pilot, and a 40% increase in applications for Countryside Stewardship agreements between 2021 and 2022.