How to profit from alternative land use

• Income sources increasingly important

• Helps make core business sustainable

• Generate revenue from marginal land

Options to generate valuable additional income from alternative land uses will be discussed at Cereals.

Alternatives to cereal cropping can benefit farm businesses in many multiple ways – helping to boost profits and improve the environment.

Organisers say Cereals will have plenty of practical advice on offer this year – including from some key farmers.

Possibilities range from wetland crops (paludiculture) and peat restoration to habitat creation and agroforestry, helping farmers to diversify their income streams and adapt to evolving challenges in land management techniques.

Paludiculture is a system of farming with a high water table. It involves cultivating crops on wet or rewetted peatlands, aiming to preserve peat soils and maintain carbon storage while producing biomass.

Exhibitors

Cereals will feature an extensive catalogue of exhibitors showcasing some of these cutting-edge practices in alternative land use. Visitors will be see how different approaches are evolving, with lots of opportunities for knowledge sharing.

Agroforestry is?the deliberate integration of trees and shrubs into farming systems to create environmental, economic, and social benefits. Experts from Soil Association Exchange will delve into this topic on their stand at this year’s event.

Soil Association Exchange spokesman William Leabeater said: “With increasing financial support for woodland creation and management, many farmers are considering tree planting as a viable land use change.”

Mr Leabeater says this trend is particularly noticeable in upland regions, where woodland creation enhances biodiversity, mitigates flooding, and offers long-term revenue opportunities.”

SFI closure

Alternative land uses have been encouraged by the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). But many farmers are now exploring alternative land uses to generate new income streams after the scheme was closed to new applciations by the government.

“When considering land use changes, it’s essential to prioritise what adds the most value and resilience to your business,” says Mr Leabeater.

“Focus on decisions that strengthen and diversify your operation and then explore how available subsidies or financial support can complement these choices — rather than letting subsidies dictate your direction.”

Markets for biodiversity net gain (BNG) and carbon credits have developed rapidly in recent years, enabling farmers to be paid for specific habitat management – although be prepared for the longhaul.

“We have people identifying land for BNG, and it is an emerging market,” says Edward Hutley, partner at consultants Ceres Rural. “But these are long-term arrangements of 30 years, so do carry risk.”

Angus Collet, director at the BNG partnership, says there has been a recent uplift in activity around BNG, with an increase in the amount of registered habitat banks that are already on the Defra register.

“It shows that landowners see BNG as an opportunity to diversify and are willing to enter into a longer-term scheme than they are used to,” says Mr Collet.

Carbon markets

Carbon trading has mostly developed through privately-funded businesses, some of which are looking at short-term management practices like cover cropping and incorporating straw into the soil to boost organic matter, says Mr Hutley.   

“Every farm requires an element of balance in its portfolio like stocks and shares traders have – short-term, long-term, high-risk, and low-risk.

You need to have enough skin in the game that there’s a financial incentive to get it right but not so much that it will be crippling if you get it wrong.”