To help growers continue operating in the ongoing high temperatures and drought conditions, Defra has announced a new drought package. This includes greater flexibility in environmental schemes, enabling farmers to receive payments while also protecting livestock and crops.
An additional £50 million will also be added to the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) fund this year, increasing access to support. The revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) should also help simplify planning permission for rural businesses, with £15 million also being made available for on-farm reservoirs.
According to the NFU, the package is an important step to building water and food resilience in the UK. It notes that England has seen three droughts in five years, leading to early harvests, historically low yields and the use of winter feedstocks to ensure livestock are fed.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “Providing this relief package and meeting with farmers to hear first-hand from them, it’s clear that the Prime Minister has recognised the serious impacts this drought is having on farmers and on our ability to water crops, feed livestock and keep food production on track. It signals that investment in farming’s resilience is an investment in the country’s resilience.
“The £65m of investment into the SFI and water infrastructure is very important strategic support that will benefit farmers. However, we are experiencing a huge crisis of cashflow and confidence across all sectors and urgent support will be needed for farmers who are feeling that pressure now, so they are still producing food next year.
“This government has said food security is national security, a sentiment the Prime Minister has echoed. Securing access to water for food production is vital to this, and so is building resilience across our entire food system.
“Today’s announcement is welcome and includes many of the NFU’s asks, but more detail is needed to understand how these will work in practice. Investment in water is critical, it is the lifeline of our food system, and we must ensure the process is streamlined and that grants are accessible.”
The NFU has been asking for government, the Environment Agency and water companies to create a risk register for vulnerable businesses so that critical farming businesses can have access to water; the prioritisation of water for food, including flexible abstraction licences; greater flexibility within environmental schemes; and improvements to communications from the Environment Agency, including water companies and Water Abstraction Groups.
The first step
The Country Land and Business Association welcomed the new NPPF. Gavin Lane, president, said: “The CLA has argued for years that planning reform must be front and centre of the Government’s plans to turbocharge the rural economy, and the new NPPF is a step in the right direction.
“It includes a number of positive changes, including a default ‘yes’ for development around railway stations. Following CLA lobbying, we are pleased that more stations serving rural communities are included.
“But the NPPF could go much further to support sustainable development in rural areas. More concerningly, it fundamentally weakens heritage protection, putting our heritage at greater risk and potentially leaving a legacy of decaying buildings across England.
“The publication of the new NPPF is only the first step. The real test will be whether local planning authorities and decision-makers apply these policies consistently and effectively.”
Make reservoirs easier
Published prior to the NPPF, Jeremy Moody, secretary and adviser to the Central Association for Agricultural Valuers, urged government to make reservoir creation easier.
“Having taken water for granted for so long, we should now learn from those who have always had much less and use it more carefully while still growing crops and keeping animals,” he said. “We need to identify how to harvest and abstract water best, store it well and then use it most efficiently, taking advantage of when our extreme weathers bring long periods of rain instead.
“The frustrating interactions with both Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and the abstraction rights needed to fill reservoirs require a much more serious approach by government,” says Mr Moody. “It needs to ease the complexity, delay and cost of processes that depend on Natural England and the Environment Agency as well as planners. For Wales, where farm reservoirs are becoming useful, we can hope that the new John Davies review of Welsh farming bureaucracy can propose similar reforms.”