The second session of the NFU Tenant Farmers' Conference was an institutional landlords’ panel discussion and Q&A.
The session was chaired by NFU Deputy President and tenant farmer David Exwood, who introduced four landlords from rural estates, each facing different challenges.
Alastair Martin, Duchy of Cornwall
Alistair Martin is responsible for running the Duchy of Cornwall, as secretary and keeper of the records. The Duchy’s significant rural estate, around half of its value, comprises 130,000 to 140,000 acres across 20 counties from Kent and the Isles of Scilly in the south to Shropshire and Nottinghamshire to the north.
Alastair ran the audience through how the Duchy approaches sustainability on its land, a passion of both the 24th Duke of Cornwall, now King Charles III, and the 25th Duke, Prince William.
“We believe, as a team, that we need to look to the future and our vision is sustainable stewardship for communities, enterprise and nature,” he said, emphasising the Duchy’s first goal, food production. “That is why we have a rural estate and tenant farmers.”
“I fervently believe in the landlord-tenant system and I think it’s got a bright future,” he added.
After a natural features’ audit of its rural estate, involving 180 farms over three years, the Duchy has introduced its Future Farming programme. The scheme is aimed at supporting its tenant farmers towards achieving its goal of becoming entirely net zero by September 2032, with investment in infrastructure, machinery and equipment, and forming a network of Focus Farms to share knowledge, among other measures.
“This is a huge challenge for us,” Alastair told the audience, “and we have to work with our tenants to get to that goal. While it’s something that we want to do, it is also something that most of our tenants want to achieve to make the most of the food commodities. If they can say they are producing from a net zero farm, they are going to be better placed to get best value.”