Farmers will quit after green funding cut - union

Kate Mayne said the NFU would do what it could to help farmers find other funding

A government decision to close a green funding scheme will lead some farmers to quit, a union boss has said.

Kate Mayne, new National Farmers' Union chair for Shropshire, has spoken out after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced it would not accept new applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

The fund pays English farmers to manage land to protect soil, restore hedgerows and boost nature recovery.

"I think there will farmers who just give up now" said Ms Mayne. "We're all scratching out heads, wondering what's coming down the road next."

Farmers who have already applied will not be affected and will receive the funding for three years.

'Makes your heart sink'

The SFI was launched in 2022 and followed the post-Brexit payment scheme that replaced EU subsidies.

It currently supports about 37,000 farmers and Ms Mayne said it had been "built and constructed to meet the maximum number of farmers".

The government said a reformed scheme would be announced in the summer, but she said the uncertainty "makes your heart sink".

Farming minister and Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner said the SFI "can and must work better for all farms and nature"

Ms Mayne said the NFU would help its members look for alternative sources of funding.

But she said: "I think there's a lot of people for whom SFI offered an opportunity just to help that business keep going and how those guys are going to feel I don't know."

'Fair and just transition'

She also said her phone had been "red hot" with calls since Defra's announcement on Tuesday evening.

Farming minister Daniel Zeichner has explained the move as "an opportunity to improve" the system to provide "a fair and just farming transition".

"[It will support] farms to be profitable businesses in their own right... SFI can and must work better for all farms and for nature," he said.

The underlying problem facing the industry was that farmers did not make enough money and the decision was about "investing in long-term stability", Mr Zeichner added.