New independent economic report finds that Northern Ireland needs to significantly increase investment in nature-friendly farming – up to £414m per year - to ensure nature targets and legally binding climate targets are met.
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New economic analysis, published today, demonstrates that the current agricultural budget is significantly less than what is required, in order for the Northern Ireland agricultural sector to help tackle the nature and climate crisis.
The independent analysis finds that an investment in nature-friendly farming of £414m per annum will be essential to not only meet nature and legally binding climate targets, but also improve the resilience of our farming industry and food production. The Northern Ireland agricultural budget is currently £329m, of which direct environmental payments account for less than 3%.
Jonathan Bell, Head of Land and Sea Policy at RSPB NI said: “As today’s Scale of Need report shows, the cost of inaction when it comes to properly investing in nature-friendly farming is far too great to ignore. We urgently need the new UK Government to rise to the challenge of ensuring our long-term food security is underpinned by both nature and climate security, being ambitious in funding and properly supporting farmers in transitioning to more resilient nature-friendly farm businesses.”
As the new Scale of Need analysis demonstrates, further widespread investment must be focussed on providing enough support for farmers to bring back nature, help tackle climate change and build a sustainable future for our food production. RSPB NI, the National Trust and Ulster Wildlife are therefore calling on the new UK Government to be ambitious in their plans to invest in Northern Ireland’s agriculture.
Peter McEvoy, Director Land Management at Ulster Wildlife added: We now know, accurately, the levels of investment needed in Northern Ireland, and that nature restoration is not a cost, but a saving in every sense of the word. Restoring habitats can protect communities from flooding, reduce run off from farms and helps protect soils and clean our rivers and lakes. A landscape full of wildlife lifts our spirits and promotes wellbeing. The pressures facing Lough Neagh and the public backing for action are testament to this. The huge return on this investment in nature-friendly farming must be realised by the new UK Government, and urgently."
Building on previous analyses, the Scale of Need report gives the most accurate assessment to date of the level of investment required. The new figures include, for the first-time, analysis of different farm types across Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and the variable costs of nature restoration across different sectors and sizes of farms.
With 75% of land in Northern Ireland used for agriculture, farmers have a crucial role in delivering nature restoration. From providing flower rich field margins, to planting native broadleaf woodlands, restoring peatlands, and reducing chemical use, there is widespread ambition in the industry to provide “nature security” alongside “food security”, not least as nature underpins our ability to produce food in the UK and globally.
Across Northern Ireland, farmers are already experiencing the worsening impacts of the nature and climate crisis, with drought and flooding significantly impacting their ability to grow food. The UK Government's own 2021 Food Security Report identified climate change and biodiversity loss as the greatest threats to UK food security, therefore any delay to providing the level of investment needed will result in higher costs in the future. Instead, the kind of nature-based solutions that this investment could support can not only help provide resilience against these climate impacts, but also provide benefits to farmers such as pollination and natural pest control - reducing the need for expensive chemicals and inputs.
Despite a commitment to maintain access to current agri-environment schemes and support, the Environmental Farming Scheme (Wider) closed in 2023. This risks leaving over 4,000 farmers who have invested in nature-friendly farming without an agreement over the next two years.
Kevin Duncan, Farm Advisor at the National Trust stated: “In Northern Ireland we find ourselves in an unacceptable position where our current agri-environment scheme, the Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS), is no longer available to the majority of farmers with no replacement scheme yet in place. Farmers, who for years have been pioneering nature friendly farming on our landscapes, no longer have access to this funding as they await the anticipated Farming with Nature Package set to replace EFS.”
“We need the scale of need funding to be met by the UK Government, but it is also imperative that our Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) re-purposes this funding to deliver an expanded Farming with Nature Scheme moving away from business-as-usual approaches to agricultural funding”.
Following the publication of today’s Scale of Need report, the charities argue that environmental schemes supporting nature and climate friendly farming must be delivered at sufficient scale to meet the challenges ahead. In a nature and climate emergency, farmers must be rewarded to aid nature’s recovery and help tackle climate change, while also producing food sustainably and ensuring resilient businesses.
Stephen Alexander, Nature Friendly Farming Network (NI) Chairperson added: ‘Farmers in Northern Ireland are not being rewarded for working in a way that balances nature recovery and food production as much as their counterparts elsewhere in the UK and Ireland. Many farmers in Northern Ireland are hungry to make changes to their businesses that support sustainable food production while restoring nature and taking action on the climate crisis’.
The findings of the latest Scale of Need report follow the evidence presented earlier this year by the Green Finance Institute that nature degradation could cause a 12% loss to UK GDP (2). In Northern Ireland, the intensive way we manage our land is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss. Many land managers and farmers across Northern Ireland are showing it is possible to farm in a more nature friendly and sustainable way, whilst supporting a profitable farm business. Supporting every farmer to take this approach will be crucial if we are to meet our legally binding nature and climate targets.