Does the new Farming Roadmap pass the test?

The publication of the government’s Farming Roadmap last week marked an important milestone in England’s post-Brexit agricultural transition. It comes as the country nears a full transition away from the EU’s Basic Payment Scheme, and towards a system that rewards the public goods farmers provide, like flood prevention and increased biodiversity. In this context, the new roadmap is intended to provide the certainty needed for farmers to invest, adapt and plan for the future.

There’s much to welcome in the roadmap. It sets out a clearer long term direction for farming than has been seen before. It signals that the transition away from direct subsidies is here to stay, at a time when the EU has opted to retain substantial area-based subsidies.

But does it go far enough? We’ve assessed it against four tests which covered clarity, ambition, integration and certainty. Here’s how it measures up.

Test 1: Certainty. Is the vision credible for the short and long term?
The roadmap sets out a somewhat clearer direction for the farming sector up to and beyond 2030. It prioritises lower input, high yield farming that uses land more efficiently, whilst maintaining current levels of self sufficiency.

Schemes that provide farmers with public money for public goods will, as expected, make up most of the farming budget to 2030. These Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes (including the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery schemes) pay farmers for benefits such as flood mitigation, carbon storage and biodiversity on their land. The aim is to move towards more innovative and efficient farming to maintain food supply, whilst reducing environmental harm.

That said, the amount of government funding available will determine how much ELM can deliver. The current annual budget for England is £1 billion short of what’s needed to meet England’s legally binding climate and nature targets, and there is no indication in the roadmap of what the farming budget will be beyond 2030.

It envisions a greater role for private finance in filling this gap, but lacks plans for adequate mechanisms to drive it, such as a regulatory framework. In a first step, the government has fulfilled a longstanding Green Alliance ask by committing to bring together retailers, sector bodies and investors to collaborate on financing sustainable farming and nature restoration.

Test 2: Clarity. Is it clear what will happen next?
Following the sudden closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive when funding ran out in 2024, farmers want more clarity over their access to farming schemes in future. The roadmap offers and reaffirms useful short term milestones, including:

• opening the latest round of Sustainable Farming Incentive payments, beginning with an initial window for small farms, followed by broader access;
• confirmation that more Landscape Recovery projects will move to implementation, with more information to come on future rounds later this year;
• a stronger commitment to support upland farms, which is welcome given the particular economic pressures they face.

However, beyond a timetable of actions throughout 2026, the roadmap lacks details on the funding, timing and scope of future application rounds for ELM schemes. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will need to fill this information gap to enable farmers to plan for the longer term.

Test 3: Ambition. How will ELM scale up?
Amongst the most significant commitments of the roadmap is the promised expansion of the Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery schemes. These are crucial in their support for habitat creation and nature restoration, and they are better suited to upland farmers than the Sustainable Farming Incentive which offers more for arable farms.

Our analysis suggests that, for English farmers to meet the targets set in the Environment Act and on climate, half of ELM’s budget should be spent on the Sustainable Farming Incentive, with the remainder going to Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery. Exactly what split Defra plans is still unclear, but it’s positive that it intends to expand the two schemes.

Significantly, the roadmap signals higher ambition for what the Sustainable Farming Incentive will support. It commits to move some actions focused on mitigating the negative environmental impacts of farming into regulation instead. This will allow more of the budget to be spent on benefits, rather than just preventing harm.

Test 4: Integration. How does it join up with broader government action?
England’s statutory nature and climate targets are the foundation of the Farming Roadmap, alongside commitment to maintain current levels of food production. To meet these, spatial targeting is needed to ensure funding reaches areas where land use and management most needs to change. It’s good to see the government recommit to this in its roadmap, logically following plans set out in its recent Land Use Framework.

We’re also pleased to see support for greater on-farm adaptation and mitigation to help farmers cope with the impacts of climate change, with commitment to publish national adaptation targets for food and farming and a Food and Farming Decarbonisation Plan for England.

The roadmap is a firm foundation
The Farming Roadmap commits the government to create a sustainable farming sector, setting out greater ambition than seen to date. As direct subsidies through the Basic Payment Scheme come to an end, and the vulnerability of our food system to climate change becomes ever more apparent, it’s encouraging to see the government set out this positive plan for farming. It passes our tests, but with a note of caution that targets and plans are nothing without action to fulfil them.