Call for crisis loans as farmers struggle after ‘hardest summer in a generation’

Emily Beament, Press Association Environment Correspondent

Farming has suffered its hardest summer in a generation in the face of extreme weather, soaring costs and disease, agricultural leaders have warned.

National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw called on the Government to underwrite “crisis loans” to help struggling farmers and for reforms to planning and tax to help boost the country’s food security in the long term.

The call comes as the NFU published a report revealing the UK’s self-sufficiency had fallen in 10 out of 11 key commodities over the past 30 years, including wheat, meat and fresh veg, as a result of falling production or in some cases, rising demand outstripping increased supply.

Farmers are urging ministers to support UK food production and set targets for self-sufficiency, in the face of climate change hitting agriculture worldwide and global instability.

In a speech in an event in Parliament to mark the annual Back British Farming day organised by the NFU, Mr Bradshaw said: “2026 has been the hardest summer for British farming in at least a generation, and no sector escaped.

“Costs are high and unpredictable, bluetongue is adding pressure for livestock businesses, while drought has hit crops and fruit and vegetable production, and created welfare concerns and forage shortages for our livestock keepers.

“Confidence is fragile, cash flow is at crisis point, and investment has suffered,” he warned, adding that the problems will cost billions in increased costs and lost revenue, while food inflation is set to climb to 6% next year – even without the super El Nino which affected weather worldwide.

“None of this is inevitable or irreversible,” he said.

“Farmers are ready to deliver the Government’s economic and environmental ambitions.

“We want to continue feeding the nation, but we need practical policies that restore confidence, that strengthen resilience, and that give certainty to invest and grow.”

Calling for the crisis loans, which he said would provide a bridge to the future for otherwise viable businesses that at the moment are facing acute cash flow pressures, he said: “This is not a normal time. The challenge facing our farmers is extraordinary.

“It is the worst in a generation. Business as usual doesn’t get us through this.”

Speaking to journalists after the event, Mr Bradshaw said the bluetongue outbreak surging across the country and impacts of drought meant farming leaders believed “this has moved beyond anything normal” and shifted the situation from “strategic into survival”.

He said farmers across the board could benefit from the proposed crisis loans, from livestock farmers who need to restock animals lost to bluetongue to arable farmers struggling to buy fertiliser – the prices of which have been pushed up significantly by the conflict in Iran.

In its proposals for the Government’s October Budget, NFU is also calling for an extension to annual investment allowances to include infrastructure such as reservoirs, to boost investment and strengthen domestic food production.

And despite changes to the controversial Inheritance Tax reforms to increase the threshold to £2.5 million, the NFU president said the policy was “wrong”, as it restricted investments in infrastructure such as reservoirs and new buildings that would increase the value of farms.

Mr Bradshaw also told reporters the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who visited a farm in his first month in office, “needs to put the food into food security”.

“At the moment, there’s talk about it, but there’s actually very little policy really underpinning that. And I think that that is the reality that they need to start real policies,” he urged.

Speaking at the event, Environment Secretary Angela Eagle said that while farming was as integral to the UK’s national security as energy or defence, food supplies “has often been taken for granted over the years, because we’ve been so good at it”.

But there were challenges the country had to face, particularly in the face of the past summer, with rising costs, water shortages and climate-driven outbreaks of disease such as bluetongue.

And she said: “When a third of farmers report that they make no profit, we’ve got to think about how to change that.

“If we’re relying on farmers to put food on our tables, farming has to put money in the pockets of those who farm,” she said.

Ms Eagle said the Government was taking action to deal with the immediate pressures and build a more sustainable future, pointing to a £65 million support package including improved access to water and £15 million for on-farm reservoirs, and measures to help with the bluetongue outbreak.

She described how the first window for applying for the revised agri-environment scheme – the sustainable farming incentive – had been a success and the capital grants scheme was delivering environmental improvements such as hedgerows that would also help farming.

“I want to reiterate this Government’s commitment to creating the conditions you need to adapt and to succeed, because when farmers thrive, the nation thrives,” she said.

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