Latest News

Eden Hill flying the drone. Welcome to an exciting update from the frontlines of agricultural innovation! The Farming Innovation Programme, a collaborative effort funded by DEFRA and delivered by Innovate UK, has embarked on a journey to transform the agricultural landscape. This initiative, running from May 2023 to April 2024, brought together E&J Farming, the University of Central Lancashire...

John Hill and Eden Muzzall of E and J Farming t/a Lancashire Lamb Boxes in the outskirts of Lancaster have secured a prestigious funding grant from Innovate UK, a division of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Their project, developed in collaboration with The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and Myerscough College, aims to revolutionise livestock farming in less favoured areas by harnessing...

Rt Hon Mark Spencer MP, Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries and Janet Hughes, Programme Director, Future Farming and Countryside Programme appeared before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

A new post, “Environmental Stewardship: an update” has just been published on the Future Farming blog. Defra recently wrote to everyone with Environmental Stewardship agreements to outline some changes that we plan to introduce in 2023. Rather than offering agreement holders an extension of a single year, we’re offering extensions of 5 years. This change, shaped by feedback, gives greater certainty...

The Prince’s Countryside Fund (PCF) has invested £588,426 in 33 projects across the UK which are helping to create a real future for rural Britain. The grants have been awarded as part of two funding streams – Supporting Rural Communities (sponsored by Waitrose and with support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery and funds awarded by the Postcode Support Trust), and the Farm Support Group Initiative...

FAS is funded by Defra. We provide free, confidential advice to help farmers in England understand and meet the requirements of cross compliance. These rules apply to you if you are a Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship claimant. To contact us, call 03000 200 301 (select the option for FAS) or email [email protected]

What the government is doing to prepare the UK for the impacts of climate change. Our climate is changing and will continue to do so as a result of global greenhouse gas emissions. Despite efforts to reduce emissions, the effects will have impacts for years to come. Preparing for a changing climate, or climate adaptation, will help the UK to reduce negative consequences of climate change and take...

This guidance has been jointly produced by Defra, Forestry Commission and Natural England to help ensure that proposals for afforestation identify and avoid important breeding wader sites.

A new post, “Environmental land management: a forward look ” has just been published on the Future Farming blog. Through our new environmental land management schemes, we will pay farmers and land managers to enhance the natural environment alongside food production. In this post, I’ll share more information about how we expect Local Nature Recovery to work.

Guidance on how the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) will work for farmers.  This page is about the full SFI scheme, which opened for applications from 30 June 2022. If you’re looking for information about the SFI pilot, read the guidance specific to the pilot.