Events

FARMING IS CHANGING. From 2021-27, through the Agricultural Transition Plan, Defra will phase out the BPS, and this loss of income will have a significant effect to a number of farm businesses. It is, therefore, vital for farmers to understand their business accounts, costs, etc., so that they can manage the upcoming changes and make informed decisions as to whether their business can remain viable.

Business Workshop. Managing and measuring the farmed environment is becoming a priority. To benefit from the new schemes, farmers may need further to accommodate farming and environmental practices within their business plans.

Content: Covering how farm businesses might manage three topics related to the Agricultural Transition Plan: The inevitable changes in agriculture include the removal of BPS, trade deals, and the exit from the EU.

• Environmental schemes as a source of funding – what funding will be available
• Access for tenants to new schemes – recourse to arbitration for Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 tenants.
• Maximising the opportunities and overcoming the restrictions contained within land occupation agreements (e.g., farm tenancies).
• Exploring the opportunities in the short and long term, e.g., diversification.
• How to be confident and have positive decision-making.
• Implementing change.
• What is the financial position of the farm, and what does it need to do to remain viable through and beyond the Agricultural Transition Plan (2027)?
• Understand the farm business accounts/costs, including bookkeeping, cash flow, and terminology.
• What tools are needed for future business planning and monitoring your business performance, and where can you access further support for this?
• Practical steps to implement the change (vision and goals) that will suit and benefit the business and family, including a business/succession plan.
• Taking a difficult decision & options to leave the industry, including up-to-date information on the Defra lump sum exit scheme.
• Understanding the split of rights and responsibilities between landlords and tenants and working together positively.

Environment Workshop. The conservation and protection of the environment is a global priority, which is being filtered down into farming practices in England. To survive in the future, all farm businesses will need to consider how they link their business with managing their farmed environment. Through the Agricultural Transition Plan, farmers will see the current environmental schemes replaced by the Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) as an additional income to their farm produce. The new schemes available through ELMS will NOT replace BPS, and farm businesses must consider how they can engage with these without relying on them to replace lost income.

The environment poses several opportunities for farm businesses through ELMs, from an individual farm level with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, up to a collaborative approach with the Local Nature and Landscape Recovery, as well as separate corporate and private opportunities.

Tapping into these environmental opportunities will help to ensure their farm business stays viable; however, caution must be advised. Firstly, there is no guarantee of the level of government funding available to farmers in the future, and the sector will have to consider exploring private investment and government support in years to come.

There is a new carbon market that may produce opportunities for farmers and land managers, but this is still unregulated, and there is a huge amount of uncertainty around this.

Content. There are several things farm businesses can do now to prepare to embrace these emerging opportunities:

• Understand what environmental assets they have available to them on their farm and start to measure them as a baseline.
• Begin to consider the potential for environmental enhancement on their farm to benefit them practically and finically, especially with high input prices.
• Look beyond their boundary at the wider geography they farm and consider what landscape scale opportunities might be available to them.
• Start collaborating with other farms in their locality, many future schemes will rely on landscape-scale involvement, and the more farmers are linked in with other land managers in their area, the easier this will be.
• Broader picture – Understand the drivers behind a focus on the environment within agriculture and how do English family farms fit into this.
• Current – Countryside Stewardship (timeframe and how to get involved)
• Future – ELMs including known payment rates, Sustainable Farming Incentive Pilot, Local Nature, and Landscape Recovery, and what help might be available to farmers to collaborate, e.g., farming in Protected Landscapes scheme and facilitation fund groups). Please refer to what is happening locally, e.g., in National Parks, AONB.