A recent report warns that almost a quarter of currently farmed land in the UK could be lost over the next 25 years due to competing land use demands.
The UK Food Security – Outlook to 2050 report has been published by Science for Sustainable Agriculture and authored by Dr Derrick Wilkinson, a former chief economist at the CLA.
The report states that, unless agricultural productivity is significantly boosted, these trends could lead to a 32% fall in domestic food production, exposing the UK to increased import reliance and food price volatility.
According to Dr Wilkinson, “The evidence is stark. Over the past quarter of a century, the UK has lost 771,000 hectares of farmland – 4.4% of its agricultural area.
This loss has been steady but relentless, with arable land giving way to development and renewable energy projects, and livestock land lost to environmental schemes and woodland expansion.
Over the same period, aggregated food yields per hectare have increased by about 15%, but those gains have not offset the shrinking farmland base or the demands of an increasing population. Overall, food production on UK farms rose by just ten per cent between 2000 and 2024, while the population grew by nearly 15%. That left Britons with five per cent less home-grown food per person, while self-sufficiency in primary agricultural products fell by 12%.”
For further information, visit f77b24_768efc488c9e441aa763bb088575230a.pdf
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