Reward our farmers for looking after landscapes

ANEW report which showcases the extensive role British farming plays in maintaining the nation’s iconic landscapes, and sets out how future policy needs to enable farmers to continue in this pivotal role, has been launched.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) Landscape & Access report says that the Government’s new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme - designed to replace the current subsidy system of direct payments under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) - must be accessible to all farmers and reward them for the role they are best placed to play in not only maintaining but improving their landscape.

Launched yesterday via a virtual live media briefing, Minette Batters, president of the NFU and a livestock farmer from Wiltshire, said: “For generations farmers have created and maintained the iconic British countryside that we all enjoy today, supporting rural economies and providing high quality, safe food for the nation. Our working landscapes will continue to change but the one constant is those farmers managing and shaping this land.

“The combination of the ordinary everyday role of producing our food helps to create the extraordinary landscape we all cherish. Features such as hedges, trees, cattle grazing fields and crops being harvested all contribute to the wonderfully varied landscapes we see today. They are all a direct result of farmers’ dual role as food producers and custodians of our countryside.

“Rewarding farmers for this work not only makes economic sense, it also ensures those with expertise stay on the land, doing the job we value so much.”

With over a year passing since the Glover review into our landscapes, and still no Government response, the NFU says its Landscape & Access report reveals that:

The public have rights of access on more than 225,000km of public rights of way in England and Wales, which is the equivalent distance of 15 trips to Australia;

Farmers maintain more than 411,000km of hedgerows in England and Wales, enough to wrap around the earth’s equator more than 10 times;

Farmland is the destination of 48% of visits to the natural environment in England, totalling approximately 4.1 billion visits every year.

Mrs Batters added: “We are at a pivotal time for the future of farming and the countryside. We are already doing so much for the environment, but with the right policies in place we can do so much more.

“We do need policies that work together to ensure we have a farmed environment that can both feed the nation and thrive with wildlife.”