Farming Today

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Farming Today: 16/03/23 Budget response: from a farming and environmental perspective; Plant Atlas.

16/03/23 Budget response: from a farming and environmental perspective; Plant Atlas.

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 16/03/23 Budget response: from a farming and environmental perspective; Plant Atlas.

What's in the budget for farming and the environment? Plant Atlas and biodiversity loss.

The budget analysed from a farming and environmental point of view. Plant Atlas charts the loss of native flora.

Experts have been unpicking the budget and what it means for farming and the rural economy. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt billed it as a growth budget, to set the UK up as an enterprise economy.  Agricultural advisors say tax breaks will encourage big farming companies to invest in new machinery and technology but smaller farms, that aren't limited companies may not benefit in the same way. There's no mention of support with energy bills for the horticulture or poultry sector.

There was a £20 billion pledge to invest in carbon capture and storage over the next 20 years.  The Green Alliance says a similar commitment was pulled in 2014, and say the scheme outlined in the budget is not focused on the kind of carbon sequestration farmers are involved with in Environmental Land Management Schemes, by planting cover crops, hedgerows and trees.

A twenty year research project into the health of British and Irish plant species concludes there’s been a devastating loss of native flora. Not only have half of our native plants like heather and harebell declined, they say that non native plants now outnumber native British ones in the wild. The Botanical Society of Great Britain and Ireland says its newly published Plant Atlas 2020 is the most in-depth survey of British and Irish flora ever undertaken.  

Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney

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16/03/23 Budget response: from a farming and environmental perspective; Plant Atlas.

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