Shropshire Farming Talk: The green recovery - keeping sustainability as a priority

Not only were they faced with having to review and map-out their own sustainability goals for their farms, but to do so against a significantly more ambitious timeline than the 2050 Net Zero target.

Our research into UK farmers’ approach to transitioning to Net Zero shows that, while some farms are well underway on their journey, others have yet to take the first steps.

Overall, as a sector, it is clear that we still have some work to do if we are to meet the NFU’s 2040 target.

Our Net Zero Monitor research shows that nine in 10 farmers agreed that considerations around sustainability are important for their business.

But only just over half (57 per cent) have started to measure their greenhouse gas emissions and form a plan to enable them to reach Net Zero.

There’s no doubt that farmers understand the importance and magnitude of the challenge ahead – nearly all (95 per cent) of those we polled said that they had placed more importance on sustainability considerations for their business over the last year.

However, there still seems to be some uncertainty and nervousness around how to make the necessary changes happen.

Since the NFU’s targets were announced, a chunk of progress on sustainability was lost to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On top of that, farmers are facing pressures from the war in Ukraine, increasing fuel and grain costs, and generally high inflation. Against this backdrop, it would be entirely understandable if investment in sustainability were to slip down the agenda, but action is now more needed than ever.

Reducing energy consumption and investing in renewable energy are priorities in the move to Net Zero among the farmers we spoke to. But, even though investment in these areas can help to reduce costs in the long run – and anything which can help manage costs is welcomed during times like these – the initial outlay of investing in green tech and sustainable solutions can prove daunting.

It is therefore vital that key partners in our sector work together to close this gap in awareness of the green finance solutions available to farmers and make sure they are equipped with the right guidance and support to reach the NFU’s target. For our part, we are committed to working alongside British agriculture to help it invest in green initiatives. One way in which we are doing this is by offering discounted finance for initiatives that make farms more sustainable.

We’ve also partnered with the Soil Association to develop a new service, the Soil Association Exchange, which offers practical advice to agricultural businesses across the UK. Under the pilot programme, a Soil Association assessor will visit and work with 1,000 of the UK’s largest farms to improve the ecological footprint and overall sustainability of their operations. These include important assessments of soil health, carbon emissions, water quality, biodiversity, animal health, and social and community impacts.

The initial pilot phase aims to capture lessons from these farms to help create advice, guidance and support that can be applied across the agriculture industry to help hit the 2040 Net Zero target. We believe it’s this sort of initiative that will be invaluable to farming businesses that are in the early stages of their journey to sustainable farming.

It’s clear that becoming more sustainable isn’t just a matter of meeting the NFU target, but about futureproofing the farming sector, as the need to address the sector’s carbon emissions only gets more important.

Farmers must keep this front of mind 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.

By Lee Reeves, Head of Agriculture at Lloyds Bank