Farmers must be given greater control over their land and stronger government backing if they are to continue feeding the nation sustainably, industry leaders warned at the Cereals Event.
Speakers at the recent Lincolnshire event urged coordinated investment in sustainable cropping, warning upcoming policies could threaten the sector’s resilience and future.
“There are three big policy areas that worry me,” said Robbie Moore, Shadow Defra Minister, pointing to planned changes to inheritance tax relief, the Land Use Framework’s proposed removal of 18% of farmland, and the Planning Bill allowing Natural England to buy land at farm, not development, value.
“Collectively, this is actively using the state to free land up for uses other than food production. Private landowners and businesses are losing control,” he warned.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw added that the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and concerns over its future direction further threaten farmers’ ability to grow food in an environmentally friendly way.
“The removal of the SFI was a bitter pill to swallow as it has become a key part of the rotation. The very principle of public goods is that they’re not paid for at food level – so they have to be paid for using public money.
"The magic money tree from the private sector has been promised for 10 years and has not materialised. It’s a pipe dream," he said.
Reports suggesting a new version of the SFI with capped payments and a social element are fuelling further uncertainty.
But Mr Bradshaw warned: “That will not deliver what is needed for a productive, environmentally friendly farming system. We need open, honest communication about their vision for farming, so we can help them shape it.”
NFU Crops Board Chair Jamie Burrows acknowledged that some growers might continue with SFI-style options due to the benefits for soil health and the wider environment.
However, he stressed that economic pressures are mounting. “Keeping the bank manager happy has to be the reality, and my fear is that farmers will have to maximise production just to make ends meet. That’s a real backwards step.”
Still, he noted the potential for win-win solutions – particularly the role of pulses like peas and beans, which offer benefits for soil fertility, nitrogen fixation, and carbon footprint reduction by replacing imported soya in animal feed.
“If the SFI is going to change, then supporting pulses could be a great option," Mr Burrows explained.
This view is supported by the £5.9 million Nitrogen Climate Smart (NCS) project, funded by Defra to help cut agricultural emissions by 1.5 million tonnes of CO2e annually.
Roger Vickers, CEO of PGRO and lead on the NCS project, said: “Even after just one year we’re seeing that, if 20% of UK arable land grew pulses, which were fed instead of imported soya, we’d save 3.4 million tonnes of CO2e per year. That’s 7% of all UK agriculture’s emissions.”
With the project bringing together arable and livestock farmers to create a sustainable home-grown supply chain, the goal is to inform future policy with solid evidence.
“This initial work demonstrates the power of pulses for environmental good while at the same time producing a highly valuable product and delivering domestically sustainable vegetable protein for the supply chain,” Mr Vickers added.
