Defra must push forwards in reforming farm payments for ambitious environmental delivery or risk undermining long-term food security, says a new report.
The Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) has set out why farm payments for improvements to soil health, biodiversity and climate mitigation would ensure viable food production.
But the group is calling for a rethink of systemic issues within food systems that weaken the industry's transition to widespread sustainability,
At a time of global food insecurity resulting from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, its new report [PDF] argues that these fragilities in the food system have long been present.
The report, part of the NFFN’s Rethink Food campaign, highlights that these systemic issues include food waste, extractive supply chains and diminishing farm returns in the face of increasing input costs.
Current research predicts that the land's overall productive capacity will reduce due to climate change, increasing supply and demand pressure, and making on-farm adaptation through nature-friendly systems a priority.
Martin Lines, NFFN UK chair said farmers were already battling extreme heat that was putting crops and harvest under threat.
"Many are up against the wall with soaring input prices for products that will be increasingly unavailable in the future," he explained.
"Moving to nature-friendly farming systems with fewer inputs means more resilient landscapes and food production that is less hindered by market or environmental stresses.
"The soil is healthier and able to bounce back from extreme heat or drought without relying on extensive use of fertilisers.”
The report sets out seven areas for achieving change, including prioritising the right outputs in the right areas, harnessing opportunities for producing a wider diversity of foods and improving the link-up between strategies for food, agriculture, trade and land use.
It recommends that payment schemes support farmers in creating greater ecological and agricultural diversity, including wider crop choices and livestock breeds, to help farms manage natural or economic shocks with less reliance on inputs.
With the right incentives in place, farming can be the backbone of a resilient food-secure future that effectively safeguards nature, improves soil health and helps achieve net zero.
Mr Lines added that current research predicted the land's productive capacity would reduce due to climate change, threatening farming’s ability to produce food in the near future.
"Moving to farm systems that restore the natural environment and adapt to a changing climate, while mitigating the worst impacts, won’t delay achieving genuine food security, but hugely – and undeniably – contribute to it.
“Right now, our food system is inherently inefficient. It pushes short-sighted and often damaging intensive production at the expense of farming’s dependency on expensive inputs while wasting considerable volumes of food and drink along the way.”
