Charles Abel • Farming Resilience
Routes to resilience How resilient is your farm business? With dramatic changes now the norm the 2022 on-line Oxford Farming Conference sought some pointers. Charles Abel reports
“We need to start farming like the earth matters and data allows us to plan better and do things better” Dr Catherine Nakalembe, Maryland University data scientist
“Life’s two most important days are the day you were born, and the day you figure out why” Simon Best
“We have to find a way to work towards balanced power [in supply chains] in a voluntary manner, otherwise it will be forced on us by legislation” Andrew Selley, Bidcorp UK.
12 • The Farmers Club Winter 2022
ON a crisp, frosty, blue-sky morning in early January over 1000 farming enthusiasts logged-on to the 76th Oxford Farming Conference – from farms and offices across the UK, even the odd ski chalet or warmclimate villa, for a lucky few. The quest was common. Not a steer on the future. Covid, Brexit and Evergreen’s Suez canal-blocking mega-ship showed the need to expect the unexpected. Instead, tips on building resilience was the quest – for whatever future we may face. Policy pointers So where will resilience come from? Farmers may see recouping support cash as part of the equation. Secretary of State George Eustice quashed that. Government’s goal is to reverse nature’s decline, he stressed, hence Defra’s focus on ‘powerful incentives’ for soil health and nature-friendly farming, with barely a nod to rocketing input costs and global food price inflation. Could that see the UK sleep-walk into a food crisis as it off-shores production, like energy supply? Far from it, he argued, a late2021 Defra review showing little change over the past 20 years. “But we are not remotely complacent, which is why we will review food security and domestic production every three years.” Indeed, strong commodity markets could herald structural changes in farm gate prices, he felt, especially if farmers can secure a fairer share of food prices, rather than be held to retailer pricing assumptions. So do slow policy changes hinder? Again, no. “It was always going to take seven years – evolution not revolution – with progressive BPS reductions feeding stewardship modules.” Annual Defra-funded
vet visits to develop farm health plans will boost welfare, while the Landscape Recovery pilot launches this year and the Sustainable Farming Incentive is focusing on soil health, with hedgerow and IFM modules next. A 30% rise in average Countryside Stewardship rates this year sends a strong signal for the 40,000 farmers not yet involved to join as a ‘bridge’ to future schemes, he urged. The pathway in Wales is different, with truly sustainable agriculture the priority, said Lesley Griffiths, Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs. “We can’t ignore the climate/ nature emergency, so we will create a new system of farm support to maximise a long term future for farming, recognising its importance to society, providing an income, and leadership in sustainable farming, with rewards for clean air, clean water and flood mitigation.” Farming is not the problem it is made out to be, added Edwin Poots, Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland, where policy proposals include a focus on smarter farming, such as renewable energy capture from cow methane. “Efficient farming is better for the environment than inefficient farming. That isn’t very popular in some sectors, but it’s true.” There was no contribution from the Scottish Government. A wider view Farming resilience will be best served by science, open markets and globalisation, argued Jason Hafemeister, Secretary’s Trade Counsel at the US Department of Agriculture. A global protocol to uphold production standards is unnecessary, he argued,
