Eustice: supporting farmers ahead of the coming growing season

• Changes to the use of urea delayed by at least a year
• Statutory guidance on Farming Rules for Water, and new slurry storage grants
• Sustainable Farming Incentive to help pay for the costs of sowing nitrogen fixing plants and green manures

The Government has announced steps to assist farmers with the availability of fertilisers for the coming growing season to help address uncertainty amongst growers and keep costs down for farmers.

With agricultural commodities closely linked to global gas prices, farmers are facing rising costs for inputs including manufactured fertiliser, due to the process depending on gas.

Environment Secretary, George Eustice has announced that changes to the use of urea fertiliser will be delayed by at least a year. The delay has been made to help farmers manage their costs and give them more time to adapt in the light of a global rise in gas prices leading to pressures on the supply of ammonium nitrate fertilisers. A consultation on restrictions was launched a year ago, in order to reduce ammonia pollution in the air. When restrictions are introduced, they will include to the use of ammonia inhibitors rather than a complete ban.

In a move to further support farmers, revised and improved statutory guidance has been published on how farmers should limit the use of slurry and other farmyard manure at certain times of year. This will provide clarity to farmers on how they can use slurry and other manures during autumn and winter to meet agronomic needs. This guidance will provide more clarity and has been developed with farmers and farming bodies.

Farmers will be further supported through new slurry storage grants as of this year, helping meet the Farming Rules for Water and reducing dependence on artificial fertilisers by storing organic nutrients until needed or for onward processing.

Alongside these measures, further details of the Sustainable Farming Incentive have also been published today. Given current fertiliser prices, the priority must be to pioneer new technologies to manufacture more organic-based fertiliser products, and rediscover techniques such as using nitrogen fixing legumes and clovers as an alternative to fertiliser.  

The Sustainable Farming Incentive will help farmers move towards sustainable farming practices over time, supporting farmers to build the health and fertility of their soil and to reduce soil erosion which are essential for sustainable food production, helping to bolster food security and the longer term resilience of the sector.

The Government will pay farmers to help them with the costs of sowing nitrogen fixing plants and green manures in their crops or in advance of their crops to substitute some of their fertiliser requirements for the coming season and reduce their dependence on manufactured fertilisers linked to the price of gas.

An industry fertiliser roundtable will also be chaired by the Farming Minister, Victoria Prentis to continue to work on these issues, identify solutions and better understand the impact of current pressures on farmers. The group will meet for the first time this week. In addition, Defra is extending the membership of its longstanding Market Monitoring Group, which involves industry expertise to understand trends in markets.

Environment Secretary, George Eustice, said:

“The significant rise in the cost of fertiliser is a reminder that we need to reduce our dependence on manufacturing processes dependent on gas.  Many of the challenges we face in agriculture will require a fusion of new technology with conventional principles of good farm husbandry. The measures we have announced today are not the whole solution but will help farmers manage their nitrogen needs in the year ahead.”

Over the course of the agricultural transition, legacy EU subsidies on land ownership or tenure are being phased out and replaced with a system that helps farmers invest in their businesses. The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund has recently been almost trebled to over £48 million, and last October the Government launched the Farming Innovation Programme to help farmers and growers boost R&D. A further £20.5 million of these R&D grants has been announced today which will help fund projects aimed at increasing productivity. Projects could include tackling a crop pest or disease that is affecting productivity or a business may work in partnership with researchers to breed new crop species which are more resilient to a changing climate.

Mark Tufnell, President of the Country Land and Business Association said:

“Whilst we welcome today’s announcements, it is important to recognise the sheer scale of the challenges ahead in the UK’s food production.

“The exceptionally high price of fertiliser can be mitigated only to a degree by high commodity prices.  Some farmers may choose not to spread fertiliser at all this year.  But if prices continued to stay at this all-time-high then government will need to urgently consider ways of increasing and diversifying domestic fertiliser production.  We hope this will be a central focus of the round table DEFRA has rightly called.

“We welcome  the news that DEFRA has accepted the industry’s advice to allow the continued use of urea within an accreditation scheme, audited by Red Tractor.  This gives farmers a greater degree of choice when purchasing fertiliser.

“The announcement of payment rates for the Sustainable Farming Incentive, and additional guidance on the compatibility of the scheme with Countryside Stewardship, goes some way to explaining to farmers the impact of the agricultural transition on their own businesses.“

Soil Association Farming Director Liz Bowles said:

“We welcome the commitment from ministers to accelerate the reduction in our reliance on artificial nitrogen fertiliser and invest in soil health. 

“It’s vital that we act differently to our post war response in the 1940s by prioritising climate and nature alongside food security. The ongoing damage being done to soils, wildlife, and climate poses the biggest threat to food security and nature-friendly, agroecological farming provides the best path to ensuring long-term resilience.

“The transition needed cannot happen overnight, and a step-change in funding for farmer-led research and peer-to-peer learning will be essential. This will help farmers gain the confidence needed to recycle nutrients from livestock or nitrogen-fixing crops like clover in more complex rotations.

“We must build on and accelerate the plans to help farmers work with nature that have been set out in the Environmental Land Management schemes – and we look forward to hearing more detail on the upcoming organic standard and the higher level payments for improving soil health.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors  

• The Government has already taken steps to support the industry, including abolishing the restrictive greening rules associated with basic payments, which required farmers to carry out specific practices in order to qualify for additional payments, including observing fallow periods on their farms, which historically delivered little for the environment.
• The Countryside Stewardship Scheme is open for applications for agreements to start in 2023. We have simplified and improved the scheme, and increased the prices we pay for most options in the scheme. Last year we saw a 40% increase in applications – around 36,000 agreements are now in operation, helping farmers to farm in more sustainable ways, with nature.
• The Government’s Farming Investment Fund is helping farmers invest in farming efficiency and productivity, including precision technology. The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund has recently been almost trebled to over £48 million, and last October the Government launched the Farming Innovation Programme to help farmers and growers boost R&D. A further £20.5 million of these R&D grants has been announced today, which will help fund projects.

SFI 22 launch

• We enjoy a highly resilient food supply chain. Our future reforms are about making the sector even more resilient and creating the right natural farming environment, so we are less reliant on artificial interventions.
• One way we’re doing this is by launching the Sustainable Farming Incentive this summer, which will support soil and land fertility. These are the very lifeblood of food production, and the scheme will provide an additional income stream for farming businesses later this year.

• Today we will confirm the details of the SFI offer in 2022. This includes 3 standards, with different levels:

• There is an additional annual payment of £6.15 per hectare for common land entered into its own SFI standards agreement.
• There will also be an annual animal health and welfare review to provide funding to cover the cost of an annual review of an eligible farmer’s livestock by a vet chosen by them.

• The updates we will announce today also include:

o   Farmers can apply for SFI from the summer onwards – there is no fixed application window.

o   Tenants on short-term rolling tenancy agreements can enter SFI, provided they expect to have management control for 3 years.

o   Initial commons guidance.

o   The online application system has been simplified to make it faster and easier for farmers to apply.

o   Standards have been revised to make them clearer and self-explanatory​ (as per above).

• The final SFI details published today will help farmers prepare for the applications opening from the summer onwards.
• The scheme will help make agriculture more environmentally sustainable, but it’s also about farmers continuing their vital role in producing food.
• For example, two of the key aims of SFI in 2022 are to improve soil health and the health and welfare of our farm animals  – both will have benefits for the environment and agricultural productivity.

Farming Innovation Programme

• Defra is making £20.5 million of funding available to boost productivity and enhance sustainability in farming through the Farming Innovation Programme, building on the £17.5 million already announced. 
• Following the successful launch of the Farming Innovation Programme – part of the package of new grants and schemes set out in the government’s Agricultural Transition Plan – the application window for two new research and development competitions will be opening today.
• The Farming Futures Research & Development Fund, delivered in partnership with the UKRI, will offer £12.5 million to fund a range of projects to help the industry achieve climate-smart farming.
• The funding will support collaboration between businesses and researchers to develop ambitious and transformative solutions to help the farming sectors reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and help them to adapt to the effects of climate change. Projects could range from solutions that reduce methane emissions from livestock to using modern breeding techniques, to developing new climate resilient crop varieties.
• A second fund, the Large Research & Development Partnership Projects, will open at the same time (30 March) and will offer a further £8 million for collaborative projects, led by businesses, which provide clear benefits to farmers or growers in England.
• We want to see large-scale research, development and demonstration of solutions that have the potential to substantially improve productivity and environmental sustainability in the sector, with projects valued between £3M - £5M over 4 years.
• Projects could include tackling a crop pest or disease that is affecting businesses productivity or a business may work in partnership with researchers to breed new crop species that are more resilient to a changing climate.

Fertiliser Roundtable

• We will launch the newly established fertiliser roundtable to look at the impact of reduced supply of fertiliser on UK farms and seek alternatives.   
• The industry roundtable is chaired by the Farming Minister Victoria Prentis and will meet for the first time on Thursday 1 April 2022.
• Key industry bodies include AIC, NFU, AHDB, CLA and TFA.
• The solution to the fertiliser crisis will require us both to pioneer new technologies to manufacture more organic based fertiliser products, and to rediscover older, more established techniques such as using nitrogen fixing legumes and clovers as an alternative to fertiliser. 

Farming Rules for Water

• We will publish statutory guidance to clarify how the Environment Agency should apply the Farming Rules for Water when it comes to spreading of organic manures in autumn and winter.
• The farming industry have sought this clarity. Farming stakeholders have been engaged on the development of this guidance.
• This will clarify that the Government does not intend to ban autumn manure spreading through the Farming Rules for Water.
• The proposed guidance clarifies the conditions when it is not appropriate for the Environment Agency to sanction farmers when they spread manure in the autumn and winter months, following confusion around the rules within the industry, and the steps that should be taken to minimise the risk of these activities.

• We will also provide further support to farmers through new slurry storage grants launching later this year.  Grants will make a significant contribution towards the costs of covered slurry store construction projects, to enable farmers to get to six months storage capacity. ​

• Agricultural practices are one of the main contributors of diffuse water pollution in the UK. At a national level, 40% of waters are impacted by rural diffuse pollution - compared to 36% of waters impacted by pollution from wastewater. 

Changes to Urea usage

• Defra consulted from November 2020 - January 2021 on 3 regulatory options to reduce ammonia emissions from urea fertilisers.​
• Today we will publish our response to this consultation.

• The response will include our support of a new Red Tractor standard to reduce ammonia emissions from urea fertilisers.
• The new Red Tractor standard will allow the use of untreated/unprotected urea fertilisers between 15 January and 31 March, and require treated/protected urea fertilisers throughout the rest of the year. This will be implemented in April 2023 – effectively a postponement of one year to be able to respond to the growing gas and fertilisers supply impacts we’re currently experiencing.
• The scheme is modelled to achieve around 11 kilotons of ammonia emissions reductions by 2024/25.
• Once implemented, the effectiveness of the scheme will be monitored and regulation will be introduced if the scheme does not achieve the ammonia reductions needed.​ The decision will likely be made in 2025/26.