Shropshire Farming Talk: Why communication, collaboration and confidence are key to the future of farming

It is often said, and quite rightly, that farmers are highly innovative and very capable of managing market shocks and new policies. But these are exceptional times. For the industry to thrive it’s more important than ever for all stakeholders to communicate, collaborate and have the confidence to meet the challenges and adapt farming practices.

Communication – During times of change, communication is essential. As nature-based solutions become embedded into farming practices, communication between landlord and tenant will be key to identifying the best opportunities and how they are acted upon for everyone’s benefit.

Collaboration – Closely linked to communication is the need for greater collaboration to maximise the delivery of nature-based solutions from land and the opportunities for land managers to become ecosystem service providers.

Greater collaboration and taking a longer-term view between landowners, tenants and contractors is key in order to deliver the new environmental land management outcomes, on-farm sustainability, and to benefit from new ESG markets.

In certain cases there will be a need to adapt the current Farm Business Tenancy structure, which in its current format is not always suitable for incentivising and rewarding long-term regenerative farming.

If future relationships take the form of joint ventures, what is the attitude to risk and reward between all the parties involved and how might this affect future agreements? How will contract farming/share farming agreements need to evolve to incorporate relationships and responsibilities in the future?

Confidence – All land managers need the confidence to take schemes forward and look for new ventures. In a landlord and tenant situation, this may involve upskilling in order that a tenant has the knowledge and ability to deliver the environmental management expected by a landlord.

The long-term nature of environmental uplift is not always conducive to short-term tenancies, and deciding who owns the uplift can be difficult so licences, contracts or collaborative enterprises may be a better solution.

In future there may be a wider range of stakeholders and the three Cs will be essential for delivering a joined up and effective environmental outcome.

Rob Paul is a director in the estate management team at Savills in Telford