Both farming and nature may be facing a crisis due to a potential £2 billion gap in funding for Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, according to the Wildlife Trust.

In the build up to the Autumn budget, which will take place tomorrow (October 28), the Wildlife Trust is highlighting the vital role of ELMs in sustaining climate-resilient food security and lowering food prices.

ELMs provide farmers with subsidies that ensure their farming practices also protect nature and improving the environment.

The Wildlife Trust is warning that this lack of funding is needed now more than ever as changes in climate have made farming harder in the past year.

According to the trust, this year alone has seen the loss of billions due to flooding, wildfires and soil loss. 

It said: "Nature-based solutions to these worsening challenges, enabled by ELMs funding, are more urgent than ever."  

Economic analysis

An economic analysis published by the Wildlife Trust today (October 27) estimates that the scale of financial investment required to meet England’s environmental priorities is a minimum of £3.8 billion per year.  

This is over double the £1.65 billion funding it is has received for the past year.

The Wildlife Trust argues that the ELMs budget has "effectively been frozen for years, despite rising costs for farmers and food production".

It highlighted that the growing toll of climate change-driven heatwaves, droughts and flooding have had a major impact on the farming industry and must be supported accordingly.

The analysis found that £2 billion of the £3.8 billion required to build resilience must be used to tackle the land use changes caused by climate change.

This includes efforts to restore peatlands, create new habitats for wildlife and the planting of new hedgerows and trees.

It called for the remaining £1.7 billion to be allocated to providing advice and ongoing management of nature-friendly farming practices. 

Nature-led farming

Strategic lead of agriculture at yhe Wildlife Trust, Vicki Hird highlighted how British farming is facing a “cacophony” of crises.

She said: “Properly funding farmer-led nature-based solutions can make farmland and crops more resilient to flooding and drought.”

Hird explained that rises in extreme weather is “leaving the UK facing its most severe food security pressures in decades”.

According to Hird, ELMs are the most effective solution to this problem.

She said: “The chancellor must dig deep to fund schemes that mitigate climate change, sustain farmers’ livelihoods and lower food prices, easing inflationary pressures and the economic crisis.”