Farmers face 'cliff edge' following Spring Budget

• 'Not a budget for UK agriculture'

• Producers need greater support

• Action required on food security

NFU president Minette Batters has accused the government of failing to take food security se riosuly following last month's Spring Budget.

It comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt failed to extend governmentbacked schemes to ease the pain of skyhigh energy prices. The NFU says the scheme should include the horticulture and poultry sectors – but the govern ment said no.

Mrs Batters wrote to the chancellor ahead of the budget. In the letter, she urged Mr Hunt to prioritise food production – and called for an extension of government's Energy and Trade Intensive Industries discount scheme.

Soaring costs

Mrs Batters explained: “Ahead of the Budget, the NFU was clear that greater support is needed for the thousands of farm businesses which are trying, but struggling, to keep our nation fed amid soaring production costs.

“It’s therefore extremely frustrating that the ETII scheme was not extended to energy intensive sectors such as horticulture and poultry.

"It begs the question – where does boosting Britain’s food security fit into the Treasury’s growth plans?”

Support for growers and poultry producers under the Energy Bill Relief Scheme expired at the end of March. It was replaced with the government's Energy Bills Discount Scheme, which is due to run for 12 months.

But the NFU says this scheme offers far less protection to businesses because it replaces what was a price cap with a token discount.

A number of industries were identified for additional support under the

ETII – but agriculture and other farm level sectors were left out.

Calling for an urgent review into the government scheme, Mrs Batters said it was “irresponsible that the scheme completely overlooked food production – not to mention being wholly at odds with the government’s own ambition to produce more home-grown fruit and vegetables”.

Support and confidence

“An urgent review into the ETII is needed to ensure that essential and vulnerable food producing sectors, such as protected horticulture and poultry production, do not face a cliff edge after the end of the energy bill relief scheme.”

Ag-inflation, high input costs and

Costs

ongoing uncertainty over government plans for agriculture have all made it difficult for some farmers to invest in their businesses – although some budget measures were welcomed by the farming industry.

For more analysis of the Spring Budget, see page 45.