Government to Fund Organisations to Support Farmers post CAP

On 16 March 2020, the government announced that new projects will be funded to provide farmers with tailored on-farm advice to help them prepare for transition away from Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Nine organisations will receive a share of the government’s £1 million of Future Farming Resilience Funding to support farmers to prepare for the new farming system.

The seven-year Agricultural Transition period will start in 2021 and see the current subsidy system of Direct Payments – which pay for the amount of land farmed – phased out from 2021 and replaced with a new system that rewards farmers and land managers for the ‘public goods’ they provide, such as better air and water quality, improved access to the countryside and measures to reduce flooding.

After years of being in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, the resilience fund provides grants for a variety of different projects which aim to help farmers fully understand the changes ahead and identify how to adapt their business models – including one-to-one advice on farms or group information workshops.

Beyond this, the government will help increase productivity and support diversification through a transformative package of productivity grants, launching in 2021. Ahead of the future Environment Land Management (ELM) scheme being fully rolled out, farmers and land managers are also being encouraged to apply for Countryside Stewardship (CS) as an additional income stream so they can start delivering environmental benefits on their land now.

This funding will go to rural-facing organisations across a range of sectors and regions in England and is set to benefit approximately 1,700 farmers this year.
Farmers have a challenging time ahead and support will be all important to the future of the sector.

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