Arable growers in Scotland were last week given a glimpse of a new initiative which offers to reward them for delivering a range of environmental benefits through a new multi-agency body made up of private businesses and local government organisations.

Outlining the proposed scheme at Scottish Agronomy’s annual technical conference, the head of sustainable procurement at Diageo, Andrew Griffiths, said that this new approach could offer growers adopting regenerative practices a better deal than tying themselves up with carbon credit contracts, while targeting the specific needs of a geographical area.

He said that the broader approach adopted by Local Environment Networks (LENs)offered a system for organising the buying and selling of land management measures which delivered a whole range of ecosystem functions, such as water quality, flood risk management, a resilient supply of crops, carbon capture and biodiversity outcomes.

Revealing that, with the drinks giant’s backing, two such schemes were likely to be up and running in Scotland’s grain growing areas within the next 12 months, Mr Griffiths said that it would bring a wide range of private and public-sector organisations together around a common interest in funding nature-based solutions within a distinct geographical area.

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He added that the aim of LENs would be to broker negotiations and eventually transactions between these buyers, and groups of landowners who were in a position to deliver them on the ground. He said farmers would benefit by being able to key into a number of new income streams which would allow them to deliver benefits to customers such as water companies, local government and other bodies interested in environmental improvements - as well as meeting the new sustainability requirements of the agri-food supply chain:

“Rather us telling farmers what to do or how to do, it would be a case of us telling them what we needed – and growers could then collaborate and decide how they could best deliver this outcome,” he said.

He also added that rather than tying themselves up with 25-year carbon trading contracts, the new schemes could be based on commitments as short as 12 months. However, he admitted that the novel approach would require a major change of mindset amongst farmers, but added that it offered an opportunity for a wider number of organisations to become involved in funding agricultural transition – and the three schemes already underway in the UK had attracted a considerable level of uptake.

Questioned on the use of the sometimes contentious term ‘regenerative agriculture’ by David Aglen, manager of Balbirnie Estates – which hosts Scotland’s AHDB strategic cereal farm – Mr Griffiths admitted that while there were no set standards associated with the term, with the data collection and the science still developing in the area, such flexibility offered growers more scope to adopt approaches appropriate to their own particular situation.

But following the address, which many in the audience felt was heavy on management-speak, it became clear that, given the often tense relationship with the malting trade, there was some scepticism over the rewards which would actually reach farmers.

Forfar grower, Ken Dodson, stated that while farmers were expected to pick up the tab which often went with moving towards sustainable practices, commercial reality meant that it was unlikely that buyers would change from their historic practices of always paying as little as possible.

And Arbroath farmer, Amy Geddes, commented that she feared that, as many farmers didn’t fully realise the true value of their sustainability credentials and associated management data, there was a real risk that this could be given away too cheaply.