Energy & Environment

Video: Farmer Michael Orchard on the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot

We asked farmers helping us co-design the Sustainable Farming Incentive to share their experience in a video diary. In this video, Michael Orchard gives us a tour of his livestock farm in the Peak District National Park. He shares the improvements he'd like to see come out of the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot.

Updated: Thu Mar 10 2022

Video: The North Cumbria Farmers Group

We're developing schemes that reward environmental land management. To make sure that those schemes work in practice, farmers and land managers across England are putting elements of those schemes to the test. It's one of the ways though which we're carrying out co-design. In this video, the North Cumbria Farmers Group share what they've been doing to help shape the future of our schemes.

Updated: Thu Mar 10 2022

Identifying CITES-listed sharks amidst a global pandemic

Warning: This blog contains images of sharks without fins or heads as part of a training exercise to identify species by their trunks. Some people may find this distressing. Since last we spoke It seems like a lifetime ago since ...

Updated: Thu Mar 03 2022

Understanding and improving farming regulation

Some farming and land management activities are regulated to safeguard our environment and to protect the health of animals, plants and people. We do this through around 150 pieces of legislation, comprising primary and secondary legislation. All of this legislation applies to agricultural activity, and collectively constitutes what is known as the 'regulatory baseline for agriculture'. This is a complex legislative picture and is not easy to navigate - we intend to improve and evolve this baseline in future as part of our agricultural transition outside of the European Union (EU).

Updated: Wed Mar 02 2022

The Farming Innovation Programme in 2022

In October, we launched the first rounds of funding in our Farming Innovation Programme. As we've been processing the applications, we've seen a promising spread of ideas across the livestock, horticulture and broadacre sub-sectors. These ideas are coming in from across the whole of England. In this post, I'll share next steps and what to look out for this year.

Updated: Tue Mar 01 2022

Farming Equipment and Technology Fund: grants issued

Recently we ran the first round of our new Farming Equipment and Technology Fund. We received 5,624 eligible applications worth a total overall value of just over £53.5 million. This is triple our initial budget allocation for the fund.

Updated: Mon Feb 28 2022

Future Farming Podcast: Government-funded innovation

In the seventh episode of the Future Farming podcast, Tim Mordan, Defra's Head of Farming Innovation, Productivity and Science talks to Rui Andrês, CEO of Fieldwork Robotics, about their innovative raspberry robot picker.

Updated: Mon Feb 28 2022

Our priorities for the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway

Today, we published our initial priorities for the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. They represent some of the best opportunities for improving animal health and welfare we have across each livestock sector. In this post, I'll share those priorities.

Updated: Mon Feb 28 2022

Tony Juniper reappointed as Natural England Chair

Today we are looking at a media interview on Tony Juniper's recent reappointment as Natural England chair. There is positive coverage today in the Guardian following Tony Juniper's recent reappointment as Chair of Natural England. Tony Juniper was interviewed on ...

Updated: Fri Feb 25 2022

How we're developing slurry grants

Today, we've blogged about how we're working with farmers and others across the industry to use slurry to our advantage. Farmers told us that finance often stands in the way of improving their slurry and nutrient management systems. Investing in slurry equipment and infrastructure is expensive. Particularly when it comes to integrating new technologies, techniques and building infrastructure. In this post, we'll share how we've been developing slurry grants to better support farmers and what to expect later this year.

Updated: Mon Feb 21 2022

Slurry: making the best of it

Slurry contains lots of nutrients including nitrates, phosphate and potash as well as a host of other things that can benefit soil health and support crop growth. It can, however, create significant pollution to our water and air. Through co-design, our team joined with a group of farmers, industry leaders and experts to explore the subject. In this post, we'll share what we've learned and how we plan to support farmers so that nutrients from slurry aren't lost, that any damage to our environment is reduced and farmers aren't dependent on expensive artificial fertilisers.

Updated: Mon Feb 21 2022

Environment Agency investigation into sewage treatment works

On 18 November 2021, the Environment Agency and Ofwat announced major investigations into potential widespread non-compliance by water and sewerage companies at sewage treatment works. This update sets out what we're investigating, what has happened since we announced the investigation and more about what flow-to-full treatment is.

Updated: Wed Feb 16 2022

Growing awareness and use of Explore Marine Plans

What is Explore Marine Plans? Explore Marine Plans (EMP) is a digital service developed by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and is an online, interactive resource that supports the implementation of England's marine plans. The digital service allows you to ...

Updated: Wed Feb 16 2022

Co-design in 2022: reflections, plans and principles

More than 4,000 people from across the farming community in England are now working with us to design, pilot, test and trial new farming policies and schemes. In this post, we'll explain how we're working with the farming community. We'll also share the 7 co-design principles we're encouraging groups to follow.

Updated: Tue Feb 15 2022

The Future Farming Resilience Fund: an opportunity for advice providers and a call for farmer feedback

One of the ways we're supporting farmers is through the Future Farming Resilience Fund. Through the fund, independent advisers can provide free business advice to farmers in England. In this post, I'll share 2 new pieces of information about the fund. The first is a new opportunity for advice providers. The second is a request for farmers to give us feedback on the advice they've received through the fund.

Updated: Tue Feb 15 2022