Government farm support no longer reliable – experts

Alternative income is vital

Nature-friendly farming practices are good for biodiversity – and some crop yields – but often remain unviable without government support, say researchers.

A major four-year study across 17 commercial farms has found that agroecological practices can enhance biodiversity and farm output – but high costs and land-use trade-offs mean most approaches are unprofitable.

Scientists from Rothamsted Research and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology tested how far farmers could reduce reliance on agrochemicals by using interventions such as wildflower margins, cover crops, and soil enrichment.

Farms trialled three systems: a business-as-usual approach; enhanced ecosystems using margins and cover crops; and a maximising model that added soil organic matter and in-field strips to attract beneficial insects.

Soils under the maximising model showed the greatest carbon gains, and both ecological systems saw increases in earthworm populations and beneficial predatory and pollinating insects.

Cereals and oilseed rape yields also rose under these  systems. But the financial picture was less positive. Higher yields failed to compensate for land taken out of production. Only the ecosystem model broke even – and only with subsidy support.

UKCEH ecologist Dr Ben Woodcock said: “Without the introduction of new financial incentives, many farmers will be deterred from adopting agroecological farming practices and systems.

Locked in

He added: “This could leave them locked into high input, intensive farming systems and more exposed to the impacts of pesticide resistance, declining soil health and climate change.”

Jonathan Storkey, of Rothamsted Research, said the study confirmed that managing land on farms for wildlife was not in conflict with food security – but could support sustainable production by increasing yields and reducing pest pressure.

But Prof Storkey warned “Our analysis has shown that realising these benefits will require additional support for farm businesses that currently operate on very narrow profit margins.”

The study was published in the journal Applied Ecology. It comes as farm business consultants Andersons warns that farmers can no longer rely on the government for the profitability of their business.

Transition

Many farmers have used government support such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive to help them ride out the phaseout of direct payments. But the SFI was closed to new applications earlier this year.

“When the SFI returns, likely in early 2026, it will not look the same as the scheme recently closed,” said Richard King of Andersons.

“It may be limited to certain geographic areas, or sizes of farms.  Many of the popular options may no longer be available.  Farmers are likely to have to look elsewhere for assistance.  Support could be available through the market.

“There are currently only limited premiums available for regenerative produce, but this may change in future.  One issue that may prevent markets growing strongly is confusion in the public’s mind about what ‘regenerative’ stands for.”

Regenerative farming will almost always have lower emissions than other farming systems. And there may be opportunities to monetise this through carbon payments.

One final source of support that is often overlooked, is from banks and other funders. Andersons says banks are generally likely to be supportive of a change in farming system. But they need to be kept informed about what is going on because an unexplained dip in financial performance will cause concern.

‘We need to show schemes offer value for money’

Funding for the Sustainable Farming Incentive is critical to nature recovery, says the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust.

GWCT director Roger Draycott said farmers needed to demonstrate that schemes delivered value for public money. The GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count showed that nature-friendly farming was effective, he said.

The annual bird count encourages farmers and land owners to go out and count the species and number of birds on their land during a two-week window in February every year.

During the 2025 bird count,  a total of 358,913 birds, belonging to 125 species, were recorded across 699,869 acres (283,227 hectares) of farmland by 1,369 farmers, land managers or their helpers.

Of the farms where counts took place, 65% were in agri-environment schemes, and nearly half undertook supplementary feeding of birds in winter and many had planted wild bird seed mixes to provide food. Both are SFI options.