The Government has today announced improvements to the farming schemes, with changes made ensuring schemes work better for farmers, domestic food production and the environment.
From 1 June, there will be 59,700 live agri-environment agreements. This means, almost half of farmers are now in Environmental Land Management schemes – twice as many as in 2020 - and the numbers involved continue to grow week by week.
From July, all eligible farmers and land managers will be able to apply for the improved, expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer which will bring together new Sustainable Farming Incentive actions and Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier actions. This aims to simplify the schemes, bringing them into one place and under one name. This means farmers can access the best of both offers, the flexibility of the Sustainable Farming Incentive with the breadth, scale and ambition of Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier, just with less paperwork.
The newly expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer will initially feature 102 actions, with an example being new actions to support sustainable food production. An example of this being through payments for precision farming, agroforestry, and no till.
The expanded offer announced today will enable more farmers to access more payments, further increasing the value of their agreements, supporting the resilience of their farm businesses, food production and the natural environment.
This announcement will be of huge help to the many farmers in Mid Worcestershire. I know how hard our farmers work to put food on our table and I support the continued and increased support of them by the Government.
