Tenanted farming sector’s role vital, says chair of forum
FARMING watchdog the NFU has responded to a review of the tenanted farming sector.
Leaders say tenants continue to play a vital role in shaping the agricultural landscape of the future, and they have praised parts of the review, conducted by peer Baroness Rock, that focuses on encouraging new farmers into the industry.
NFU’S tenants forum chair Chris Cardell said: “Agricultural tenants and tenanted land have a vital role in delivering this government’s food production and environmental ambitions, and in growing our rural economies.
“As the review stresses, and as the NFU has long argued, landlords and tenants should be working together as equal partners to achieve this.
“With over 60% of England’s farmed area being farmed by tenants, they play a pivotal role in producing food for the nation and looking after our environment. That is why it is important that agricultural land in the tenanted sector is protected and any loss minimised by ensuring that the Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMS) is accessible and relevant to both tenants and landlords.
“The NFU agrees with Baroness Rock’s Review that county council farm estates should be a key entry point for next generation farmers.
“The report is also right to urge Defra and regulators to ‘tenant-proof’ their schemes, policies and processes, ensuring they are a benefit to all farmers, including tenant farmers, and therefore wider food production and environmental protection.
“Any comprehensive review will throw up differences of opinion and the NFU tenants forum will now examine the recommendations in detail.
“The NFU urges ministers to respond swiftly so that together we can grow a more vibrant, accessible and resilient tenanted farming sector.”
Speaking about her review previously, Baroness Rock said: “In February 2022 the
Defra Secretary of State asked me to chair the Tenancy Working Group with two clear objectives. The first was to look at how the new government financial schemes should be accessible, open, and flexible to tenant farmers. The second was to look at longer term changes that would ensure a robust, vibrant, and thriving agricultural tenanted sector for the future. With roughly a
third of farmed land in England being tenanted, tenant farmers are vital to the nation’s food production.
“Tenant farmers must therefore be properly integrated into the Future Farming policy, the design of all future schemes and supported for long-term resilience of the sector. They are, and must remain, a crucial part of the future agricultural and land management landscape.
“Uncertainty seems to be the watchword of our time. Brexit, Covid, the war in Ukraine, a cost-of-living crisis, political upheaval, and the largest change to agricultural support in a century.
“As payments from the Basic Payments Scheme reduce, farmers are seeing their future cashflow diminish. The tidal wave of uncertainty around the new public schemes means they are struggling to see how they can remain viable. Added to this, tenant farmers face multiple barriers to accessing government schemes and growing their businesses. Rent requirements, short duration tenancy agreements, restrictive clauses, and contractual issues can compound the uncertainty.”