Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has outlined a package of measures to help farmers in Britain as the agriculture industry continues to come under pressure.
Speaking at the National Farmer's Union (NFU)'s annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Sunak said the government would deliver on its plan to support profitable farming businesses, improve food security and protect the British agriculture sector.
He announced 拢220m for technology and innovation schemes such as robotics, roof-top solar and agricultural research, which he said would help farmers boost productivity. The money is part of the government鈥檚 commitment to maintain support for English farming at pre-Brexit levels of 拢2.4bn a year.
In the first speech by a Prime Minister to the NFU conference since 2008, ahead of an expected general election this year, Mr Sunak also outlined plans to reduce 鈥渞ed tape鈥 to allow farmers to develop on-farm businesses such as shops.
The NFU mainly welcomed Mr Sunak's package of measures but said they included no actual new money.
British farmers have been calling for more help from the government as they continue to struggle with cost pressures, low supermarket prices and a payments scheme that was introduced after Brexit that many believe is more focused on the environment than food productivity.
"British farming is in a crisis," a Wiltshire-based farmer attending the conference told the BBC. Josie Lewis, who has taken over a dairy farm in Calne, said: "We need the government to listen to us and give us a bit more backing with funding."
Mr Sunak said the government was "strengthening support" for farmers' primary role to "produce the nation鈥檚 food security as a vital part of our national security."
He added: 鈥淵ou help support millions of jobs, add billions to our economy, shape the landscape. But most of all, you produce the food we need 鈥 food that is some of the best and highest quality anywhere in the world. And that鈥檚 why I say to all of you and to Britain鈥檚 farmers, just as I did, in my very first speech in Parliament: I鈥檝e got your back.鈥
The Prime Minister defended the move away from the EU-era Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with payments focused on the area of land farmed, saying it did 鈥渓ittle for food productivity or the environment. It was far, far too bureaucratic.
鈥淪o, we鈥檙e changing the culture. That means trust, support, co-operation. That means delivering on our promise to cut planning red tape that鈥檚 stopping you from diversifying,鈥 Mr Sunak said.
He told farmers the government had changed its approach to trade deals to support the sector, was making sure there was fairness in the supply chain, and had a 鈥渕assive, new and welcome focus on food security and food production鈥.
The Prime Minister also said the government will also publish an annual food security index, monitoring the 海角视频鈥檚 current level of food security and how it can be maintained.
NFU president Minette Batters outlined the challenges facing the sector, including extreme weather and flooding, soaring input costs due to Russia鈥檚 war on Ukraine, and the move away from EU-era subsidies to environmental land management schemes paying for public goods.
She attacked the Welsh government for its sustainable farming scheme, which she said would cut jobs, livestock numbers and farm incomes, warning the programme was a 鈥渞ed line, and we will not cross it鈥.
Food production was becoming the 鈥減oor relation鈥, Ms Batters warned, and said: 鈥淎t the general election I鈥檇 like all parties committed to treating food security as the same strategic priority as energy security.鈥
She called for a mid-term review to monitor the impact of England鈥檚 new sustainable farming incentive 鈥 which pays farmers for measures including boosting soil health, protecting waterways and preserving hedgerows.
鈥淲e must see changes this year to redress the imbalance between environment and food production in government policy before many more farms just simply disappear.鈥
Ms Batters warned of a 鈥渋ll-informed utopia where we live on lab-grown meat and gloop produced in factories鈥, which she described as a 鈥渏oyless dystopian vision鈥 that could never replace nutrient-rich food grown in the landscape.
