Member opportunities

• Improved efficiencies to meet specification while taking advantage of low nitrogen input crops.
• Opportunity to achieve lower nitrogen cost per tonne produced.

Barriers

• Lack of knowledge exchange to compare and benchmark farm data to highlight economic opportunities through good practice.
• Limited data to demonstrate NUE (nutrient use efficiency) for crop varieties.
• Meeting specification for markets and lack of transparency across the supply chain creates uncertainty and risk.
• Significant risk of shortfall in farm business income created by crop failure or low yields through experimentation.

NFU asks

• Greater government, industry and R&D support for productive plant breeding opportunities with consideration for NUE requirements.
• Improved market transparency on claims and rejections to build trust across the supply chain.
• Promotion of industry collaboration to understand crop nutrition requirements through knowledge exchange, guidance and inclusion of NUE in AHDB recommended lists.
• Standardised best practice for nutrient use efficiency benchmarking and data sharing to support the development of crop efficiency.
• Suppliers to facilitate greater understanding of the embedded GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions within manufactured fertilisers to support decision making by farmers.

Use of organic manure

Member opportunities

• Organic manure will displace some manufactured fertiliser applications as well as optimising input costs.
• Improve productivity through activities such as mob grazing on autumn drilled crops to increase tillering, providing soil health benefits and alternative income from grazing.

Barriers

• Availability of FYM (farmyard manure), cost of transport and storage, and regulatory barriers such as planning for on farm covered manure storage. 
• Lack of financial support through grant funding and SFI, and guidance on incorporating nutrient cycling practices and benefits.

NFU asks

• Continued pragmatic and agronomically suitable regulation around organic manure use.
• Practical and accessible financial support for on-farm manure storage infrastructure with simplified and supportive planning processes and guidelines for local authorities.
• Greater promotion of muck for straw agreements, the benefits of collaboration between sectors and readily accessible standardised agreements.
• Guidance on improving nutrient cycling based on the variable factors for each farm– carbon, economics, and crop performance benefits.
• Data to demonstrate economic benefits of organic manures to support decision making.
• Fast tracked support for industry from funding bodies for the development of novel solutions to make FYM derived nutrients more mobile.

Member opportunities

• Investment opportunities, including through existing or new funding mechanisms or taxation tools.  
• Investment in critical infrastructure, structural and operational improvements such as land drainage, grain handling, storage equipment.  
• Improved nutrient use efficiency through plant varietal breeding improvements, data systems and agronomically sound risk-based decision-making tools.  

Barriers

• Current planning policy.
• Cashflow – current grants are secured against deposits however businesses do not always have access to capital required for a deposit.
• Restrictive tax systems present challenges for capital investment.
• Grant schemes being targeted at larger scale farms.
• Only new machinery and equipment being included within SFI options (England only).

NFU asks

• The ability to buy non-new machinery on grant schemes, not just brand new (perhaps linked to the ‘shelf life’ of the machinery as set out by manufacturers)
• Expand the list of eligible equipment under the small grants scheme to better reflect the needs of the sector.
• Tax advantages currently available to limited companies to be made available to partnerships and sole traders.
• Support payments for business resilience activities.
• Capital allowances for both incorporated and unincorporated businesses, work to incentivise the investment required in a broad range of climate smart capital investments.

Sustainable protein crops

Member opportunities

• Soil health improvement and pest, weed and disease control through IPM and diversifying cropping rotation.
• Reduced nitrogen requirement across crop rotation through use of legumes and low nitrogen input crops.
• Displacement of imported soybean meal through the increased production of homegrown protein crops thereby reducing embedded carbon emissions.
• Alternative break crop to oil seed rape, reducing pest burden.
• Early flowering break crop to improve food source for beneficial pollinators.

Barriers

• Historically low investment in crop varieties, chemistry and the development of science based agronomic practices.
• Lack of financial support to incentivise production and outweigh risk.
• Reducing availability of PPPs for novel and niche crops.
• Uncertainty around best practice methods to achieve sustainable crop yields.
• Lack of cropping choice for different farming business structures.
• Lack of awareness around agronomic guidance.

NFU asks

• Industry, research and government collaboration to support development of a wider understanding of crop performance, chemistry and knowledge exchange around agronomic practices to support a productive home-grown protein crop sector.
• Industry and government collaboration to enable and promote the uptake of home-grown protein crops, delivering reductions in GHG emissions from imported soybean meal, and supporting diversity within the crop rotation.

Member opportunities

• Reduce cost per unit of production/overall cost.

Barriers

• Lack of evidence for reduced cultivation across different land types and farming systems.
• Financial risk of transitioning to low cultivation practices due to loss of productive output.
• Lack of suitable, serviceable and affordable low carbon vehicles and farm machinery being brought to market.
• Planning barriers preventing investment to improve efficiencies for activities such as grain drying.

NFU asks

• Evidence-based knowledge exchange to guide farmer decision making on cultivations.
• Improved accessibility to funding for uptake of precision technology and low cultivation practices for farms of all sizes, particularly smaller businesses.
• Data collection technology on grain loads.
• Greater investment support and planning policies for renewable energy options to facilitate electrification on farm, for example, improved efficiencies in grain drying.
• Tax breaks for low emission on-farm technology.

On-farm data

Member opportunities

• Decision making around on-farm activities are likely to be influenced more by GHG data in the future.
• Support the development of understanding around reporting on Scope 3 emissions.
• Ability to baseline and track progress supporting on-farm efficiencies.

Barriers

• Slow progress on harmonisation across GHG calculators.
• Lack of baseline data to measure progress.
• Time-consuming and confusing.

NFU asks

• Continued harmonisation of GHG calculators.
• GHG audit support and guidance to identify emissions hotspots and understand actions to take.

Member opportunities

• Increased soil organic matter and soil health benefits such as reduced soil erosion, biodiversity and improvements to nutrient retention.
• Opportunity to diversify farm incomes through SFI, carbon markets and nature-based solutions.

Barriers

• Nascent carbon markets – lack of clarity and trust.
• Delivering sequestration can put extra financial burden on already stretched businesses.
• Lack of wider evidence-based knowledge of the potential of activities to improve soil carbon sequestration.

NFU asks

• Government schemes for carbon storage to work alongside private finance.
• Government policy to protect ownership of sequestered carbon by farmers from supply chain demands.
• Voluntary carbon offset market code of conduct.
• Improved support and guidance for farmers which includes standardised contractual obligations for all parties.
• Greater clarity around soil carbon sequestration activities and methods.

Making the most of renewables

Member opportunities

• Reduced reliance on the grid to provide power at peak times and reduced exposure to short-term market volatility.
• Additional income through exporting surplus energy.

Barriers

• Initial cost of implementation of renewable systems and grid connectivity.
• Time-based restrictions such as farm tenancy.
• Planning restrictions.

NFU asks

• Ready-to-roll-out opportunities need to be accessible to farmers – work with government to reduce barriers.
• Financial support to enable investment.
• Alternative fuel vehicles must be affordable, fit for purpose, accessible and accompanied by the right infrastructure.

Member opportunities

• Diversified portfolio of income streams to benefit from increases in demand.
• IPM and soil health improvement through beneficial and profitable “break crops”

Barriers

• The cap on national crop use for biofuel.
• Unrefined and underdeveloped market demand.
• Lack of financial incentives to outweigh associated risk with a new crop.
• Lack of profitable options for different farming business structures.
• Limited agronomic guidance.
• Regulatory and bureaucratic burden associated with hemp varieties and poppies.

NFU asks

• Create flexibility of supply to reflect demand within feedstock potential.
• Policy mechanisms to reward farmers for environmental benefits where the market doesn’t.
• Market-driven solutions to offer farmers fair reward, fair contracts, choice, and to support certainty of demand.
• Flexibility for tenants to support the use of alternative crops to support soil health improvement.
• Reform regulatory space to allow for the expansion and development of agronomic and practical support mechanisms to allow ease of access by the sector.