Could you help Baroness Batters shape farm profitability review?

Baroness Batters has recently been asked by Defra secretary Steve Reed to provide recommendations on farm profitability to him and the farming minister.

She will provide short-, medium- and long-term recommendations and propose actions for government and industry that will support farming profitability as part of this government’s New Deal for Farmers.

Baroness Batters has now issued a plea to farmers, asking for their opinions about, among others, the biggest barriers and/or opportunities relating to profitability in their sector.

She wrote in the letter: ‘As a fellow farmer and ex-president of the NFU, I don’t need to tell you the vital role that farmers and growers play. Farms are fundamentally businesses that need to be able to make a profit.

‘They are also homes to families, and nearly 50% of farms in England are tenanted. I am determined to use this opportunity to provide meaningful recommendations to government, food retailers, processors and manufacturers.’

Baroness Batters explained that she is intentionally taking a broad definition of profitability underpinned by two core principles:

• Farms are businesses that produce an agricultural yield of some kind (per the Agriculture Act).

• Farm income is the revenue generated by a farm after all expenses have been deducted. This is fundamental to farm viability and their ability to reinvest.

Farming representative bodies to act as ‘convenors’

Baroness Batters said that she will meet with “as many interested groups as possible” within her six-month appointment. She will also be joining Defra’s sector groups over the summer to get the views needed for the review.

The former NFU president continued: ‘In advance of those meetings, I wanted to give you a little more detail of how I will be approaching my review.

“Firstly, I want to focus on a small number of impactful short, medium and long-term recommendations. I appreciate there will be multiple issues affecting farming at different levels and in different sectors, but I’m also conscious the recommendations must be viable with government and others.

‘My ask of each of the sectors is to coalesce around: three to four big barriers and/or opportunities relating to profitability in your sector, and corresponding solutions to these issues.

‘I would particularly welcome any case studies to demonstrate the problems you identify as part of this process.’

Baroness Batters added that, although she is open to listening to individual views, she has a limited period to conduct this work.

Therefore, she asked farming and growing representative bodies and sector-specific groups to “act as convenors to pull together views and put forward clear actionable proposals” that she can in turn consider helping shape her review recommendations.

Farmers asked to ‘think outside the box’

Baroness Batters has also said that the review is a “rare opportunity to step back and think about how everyone can shape the future for their sector”.

In her letter, she encourages farmers to “think outside the box” on solutions to increase profitability in the sector. Having said that, the solutions must be deliverable in the world that we live in, not the world we’d like to live in.

‘They cannot therefore be limited to government action or interventions alone, as they need to be deliverable in the tight fiscal environment this government is operating in.

‘As such, the solutions must also include what the sector and supply chain can do differently,’ the letter continues.

The recommendations should be sent to farmingprofitabilityreview@defra.gov.uk by Friday, 11th July, at the latest.

READ MORE: Former NFU president Minette Batters to lead farm profitability review

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