Brian Richardson, Virgin Money’s head of agriculture UK comments on the General Election.

“A General Election, new Government and ministers always becomes a focus for future policy for farming; what are going to be the priorities going forward and where will future budgets be spent? Unfortunately, farming appears further down the political agenda than many in the industry would hope.

Given that agricultural policy is now firmly in the hands of the national or devolved Governments and no longer with Brussels, it is disappointing to see such a thin debate around the future of farming and the importance of farmers to both food security and the challenges of climate change.

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That farming will need to change and adapt to a new set of circumstances around net zero and climate change is understood by farmers, and significant progress is being made to evolve systems and build on sustainability in its broader sense.

New technology and the ability to analyse data in new ways has allowed farmers to look at new systems and evaluate what works in much more detail. At the same time, recent inflationary challenges in agriculture have also focused farmers’ minds on looking more closely at optimising inputs.

While I suspect agricultural policy development post-election will be slow and funding for support restricted, a lot of recent progress on reducing carbon has also had the benefit of improving the financial position of farmers. It is important that this progress is maintained going forward.

Some sectors have pushed forward at speed and made gains in productivity and efficiency while at the same time reducing their carbon footprint.

The dairy sector is leading the way. Some good leadership in the sector, access to detailed data and a focus on the crucial bottom line, has enabled that progress.

Other sectors with a less compact processing base have been more challenged, but progress and momentum are building which can only be good for the farming sector.

It is more important than ever that farmers focus on the key factors in achieving an economically and environmentally sustainable future. Learning about the carbon story and knowing how to influence it on your farm will be fundamental coming up with a viable plan. The good news is that reducing carbon can go hand in hand with improving overall performance and efficiency, before looking at sequestration to build on that work.

Farming is changing at pace, and it is crucial to be part of that change. Doing nothing is not an option for farmers.

The agricultural revolution that Michael Gove talked about in 2019 and that seemed to have rather petered out is quietly gathering speed again.

Whilst policy development may be slow to emerge, the direction of that policy is clear and there does need to be a focus from farmers to pick up the pace on planning and change in their own business.