DEFRA has just two years to address the UK farming profitability crisis or risk seeing the sector’s economic model collapse, Baroness Minette Batters has warned.
The former NFU president told MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee that the evidence from her Farm Profitability Review, published late last year, makes it clear that the farming industry is running out of time. She said England’s farming sector must adopt a new economic model and a long-term strategy, or face severe consequences within the next 24 months.
“In my opinion, on the evidence I have, we do not have any longer than two years if we are not going to come up with a new economic model and a new strategy for a long-term farming roadmap,” she told the committee.
The session, chaired by Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael, highlighted not only the scale of the challenges facing agriculture, but also a longstanding lack of direction from government. Carmichael said the two-year deadline should act as a clear marker for ministers, arguing that years of policy drift have contributed to the current crisis in profitability.
“The challenge laid out on delivering a new farming roadmap should be considered a clear marker for this Government,” he said. “There has been a total lack of vision for farming from our governments for many years, which has led to the crisis of profitability in agriculture.”
While he acknowledged the enormity of the task in such a short timeframe, Carmichael said Defra would “have to rise” to the challenge if farming is to remain viable in the long term.
Batters also warned that growing divergence in agricultural policy across the UK could add further pressure on farmers. With England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland increasingly taking different approaches, she said the internal market risks becoming more complex than the EU single market ever was.
“I fear that we are headed for more complexity with the UK four than we had with the 28 EU member states,” she said, stressing that a joint UK-wide plan is especially important in areas such as trade, disease control and biosecurity.
Carmichael echoed those concerns after the meeting, saying relationships between governments had improved in recent years but policy divergence too often appeared to be happening 'for divergence’s sake'.
He added that a properly functioning UK internal market was vital not just for farmers, but for consumers as well, arguing that it is essential 'that the market works effectively across the UK as a whole'.
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