Supporting farmers towards the green recovery
The pandemic presents a chance to carefully re-start the economy in a sustainable way with green thinking at its heart, and the agriculture sector has a big role to play.
But, when we polled 200 farmers, 87 per cent didn’t know what their farm’s carbon footprint was, and the cost of investing in green tech and sustainable solutions was the biggest risk to their business for 42 per cent.
One solution might be green finance – which more than half of those we polled had never heard of.
Government, banks and lobby groups must make sure farmers are equipped to reach the NFU’s target. As the largest lender to the sector, we’ve lowered our lending limit from our Clean Growth Finance Initiative so smaller operators or with lower investment needs can access more manageable chunks of finance, to fund things like soil health and peatland protection.
We also provide exclusive access to a new carbon measurement tool so farmers can be equipped with the knowledge they need.
We’re committed to be by the side of farmers as they look to their future plans – safe in the knowledge that supportive and guiding partners in sustainable thinking are right there by their side.
Lee Reeves, head of Agriculture at Lloyds Bank.
