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Farming Today: 27/01/23 - Defra minister on new environmental schemes; Fishing

27/01/23 - Defra minister on new environmental schemes; Fishing

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 27/01/23 - Defra minister on new environmental schemes; Fishing

The Defra secretary on the sustainable farming incentive; and pressure on fishing waters.

Defra minister Therese Coffey sells the government's updated environmental land management schemes. Fishermen fear they'll lose fishing grounds at a frightening rate in future.

The secretary of state for the environment, Therese Coffey, has visited a farm in Berkshire to sell the updated version of the SFI - the Sustainable Farming Incentive which will pay English farmers to do good things for the environment, such as maintaining hedgerows or improving soil. It's the first tier of the Environmental Land Management Schemes - ELMs - which offer farmers payments for public goods, rather than direct subsidy, the BPS payments, as has been the case under the EU's CAP. 

The scheme's being expanded and that's been broadly welcomed by farmers - who can now get better payments for 280 actions they can take on their land, but conservationists question the level of ambition in the SFI, though welcome news that more projects will be supported under another ELMs scheme, Landscape Recovery.

The main industry bodies representing fishermen in the UK say the industry faces a 'frightening' loss of fishing grounds over the coming decades due to the expansion of protected marines areas and offshore wind farms. The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations and the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation says there should be more engagement with the industry to minimise and mitigate the displacement of fishing activity. 

Presenter: Charlotte Smith
Producer: Rebecca Rooney

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