Unfair regulations and net zero are piling pressure on British farmers

Sir – I’m sure that, given a choice, everyone would prefer to eat the highest-quality food produced in Britain (report, March 27), but not everyone has the means.

If the Government believes it’s safe to allow imports of food produced using methods that are banned in the UK, it should lift that ban. If it wants more wildflowers grown, it should use land that is not highly productive.

Farmers are right to protest, but not just because of trade deals and tariffs. The culprits are unjustifiable regulations, net-zero nonsense and a rigged energy market, which are taxes on the British consumer in all but name. Tim Coles

Carlton, Bedfordshire

Sir – Surely the most important activity for farmers is to produce quality food for the nation, rather than being coaxed by subsidies into turning fertile agricultural land into wildflower meadows and wind farms (report, March 26). I was a dairy farmer for

26 years until 1984 and know from experience how hard farmers work – all hours, in all weathers.

I trust politicians will recognise that action needs to be taken to support them, or there will soon be no farmers left in this country. Donald Galt

Banbury, Oxfordshire

Sir – Jamie Blackett (Comment, March 27) unfairly points a finger at agricultural tenancies as holding back efficiencies within the UK agriculture sector.

In fact, they provide liquidity to the most fixed factor in the agricultural sector: land. The tenancy system is the principal way in which we attract new entrants to the industry, and it provides the most cost-effective way for businesses to acquire more land to attain economies of scale.

In essence, agricultural tenancies combine those who are asset rich but low on entrepreneurial flair with those who have entrepreneurial drive but lack access to owned land. The real problem with them is that landlords offer terms that are too short.

Agriculture is a long-term endeavour, with a significant capital requirement that is normally funded by borrowed money, and with an ever increasing need to meet wider environmental goals. When 80 per cent of tenancies are for only five years or less, the problem is not rigidity but short-termism. George Dunn

Chief executive, Tenant Farmers Association

Theale, Berkshire

Sir – Normally at this time the fields in the South Downs are full of frolicking lambs, but this year they are almost entirely absent. A local butcher told me that most farmers can no longer afford the necessary foodstuff for lambs, so decided not to put the ewes to the rams last year. How very sad. Alan Quinton

Eastbourne, East Sussex