Sustainable Farming Incentive - Statement

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 7:57 pm on 18 March 2025.

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Photo of Baroness Hayman of Ullock Baroness Hayman of Ullock The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 7:57, 18 March 2025

On food security, as I mentioned earlier, we currently have 37,000 farmers in the SFI scheme, which equates to about 50% of farmland. The purpose of that is to support them to produce food sustainably while also delivering for nature. The SFI agreements last for three years, so, although we have closed the new applications, the live agreements—the 37,000—remain unaffected and can continue to support sustainable food production.

We are committed to improving food security and are aware that SFI is a major tool that we need to use to support that. We are also looking to boost food security with other tangible measures. For example, we recently committed to ensure wherever possible that half of food supplied into the public sector is produced locally or certified to high environmental standards. We have also announced a five-year extension to the seasonal workers visa route and we are looking at reform to the planning system so that farmers can put the necessary infrastructure in place that they need in order to continue to produce food sustainably.