The government has recently announced a restriction on the proportion of farmland in England eligible for removal from food production in a move to safeguard domestic food security.
Under the Sustainable Farming Incentive, a centrepiece of the new post Brexit subsidy framework, farmers will now be limited to dedicating just a quarter of their total acreage to a suite of six environmental initiatives that would otherwise divert land away from agricultural production.
According to Farming Minister Mark Spencer, “The six actions we are capping were always intended to be implemented on smaller areas of land, and these changes will help to maintain this intention and continue our commitment to maintain domestic food production.”