Environment Secretary George Eustice on future agriculture policy in England at the NFU conference 2021
Written by Defra Press Office
There has been prominent positive coverage in The Telegraph (p.10), Daily Star (p.2), Western Morning News (p.1), Western Daily Press (p.20), Farmers Guardian and Farming UK following the Environment Secretary’s speech at the NFU Live conference yesterday (Tuesday 23 February).
In his speech he said farmers can face the future with confidence now that we have left the EU as many sectors continue to see strong market prices and the UK’s self-sufficiency in food production has increased for the first time since 2014.
The Environment Secretary invited farmers across England to take part in the next crucial stage of the Government’s flagship green farming policy. He announced that hundreds of farmers around the country will pilot the Sustainable Farming Incentive.
After nearly 50 years of being tied to burdensome outdated EU rules, we have an opportunity to build back greener. The Sustainable Farming Incentive is a new scheme which will reward farmers for taking actions that benefit the wider environment to create greener landscapes, promote cleaner air and water, and guard against environmental risks such as climate change and flooding.
In his speech at the NFU Conference, Environment Secretary George Eustice said:
The pilot will allow farmers to choose from a range of standards based on specific features of the natural environment such as grassland, hedgerows, water bodies or woodland. Each standard brings clear environmental benefits and contains several actions which farmers can apply to their own farms in order to receive payment.
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