UK government to pay farmers for sustainable farming methods after Brexit

Ministers regard the reforms to agricultural policy after Brexit, set out in a new “roadmap” on Monday, as the most wide-ranging overhaul of farming and land management in England for 50 years.

England’s farmers will begin losing their current state subsidies from next year and instead receive payments for efforts to protect the environment, under government plans.

Under the plan, a new “environmental land management” program will be introduced to encourage sustainable farming methods and the creation of habitats and new woodland to help tackle climate change. (Reuters File Photo)

Ministers regard the reforms to agricultural policy after Brexit, set out in a new “roadmap” on Monday, as the most wide-ranging overhaul of farming and land management in England for 50 years.

As subsidies based on European Union programs are phased out over the next seven years, a new system will encourage farmers to produce healthy food in a sustainable way that generates profit.

“Rather than the prescriptive, top-down rules of the EU era, we want to support the choices that farmers and land managers take,” Environment Secretary George Eustice will say in a speech on Monday, according to extracts released by his office. “If we work together to get this right, then a decade from now the rest of the world will want to follow our lead.”

Under the plan, a new “environmental land management” program will be introduced to encourage sustainable farming methods and the creation of habitats and new woodland to help tackle climate change, officials said. Payments will also be made to improve animal health, focusing initially on fighting disease.