UK FARMS will go bust and food security is at risk unless UK policy helps farmers to balance food production with nature and climate friendly farming.

This warning from the Nature Friendly Farming Network comes as part of their new 'Nature Means Business' report, which claims that lowering inputs such as fertilisers and medicines, and farming with nature increases long term profitability and resilience for farms, whilst supporting nature to thrive.

The report included an analysis of 43 farm businesses and found that when farm businesses reach a point where outputs, such as food produce, require additional inputs, like fertilisers and medicines, farmers will degrade natural assets and profitability can deteriorate.

The research concluded that farm businesses obtain maximum returns by moving away from a high productivity farming system, to a balance of farming with natural assets and careful management of the countryside.

The report also includes new Opinium research of 2,083 adults, commissioned by the NFFN which revealed the public demand for the Government to fund climate and nature-friendly farming.

Seven in ten people did not want public money to reward ‘business as usual’ farming approaches with over eight in ten people wanting farming policies to support UK farmers to not just maintain but improve the environment and wildlife on farms.

Scottish farmer and member of the NFFN Denise Walton, is spearheading calls for long-term funding, strong environmental regulations and certainty that farmers will not be undercut by cheap imports to be written into agricultural policy.

Ms Walton of Peelham Farm – recently crowned the winner of the Innovation in Farming award at the Helping it Happen Awards - explained how nature friendly farming has made her farm more sustainable and financially viable in the long term: "Nature friendly farming makes our farm more resilient. Since going organic we have built our soil health and have fewer pests and diseases. Natural insect predators, such as Ladybirds, are more evident. Our customers also want to know that biodiversity is part and parcel of our farming practice and that is why they buy our products. Supporting the environment and biodiversity sets us apart from other farms and contributes to making us financially viable."

She added that government support is needed post-Brexit to ensure people can farm with nature: "We need to see policy and subsidy support to pay for public goods that nature friendly farms produce, like carbon sequestration, healthy soils, clean air and water, and the protection of habitats and wildlife."

She voiced her concerns that without the government committing to future farming payments that farmers won't invest in wildlife: "It is crucial, given that species loss and climate change are now in free-fall, that we have the government behind us. We can be and want to be a significant part of the solution, but we need support and commitment from the government in the form of farming payments.

"We can and must become part of the solution slowing, halting and then reversing the biodiversity and climate freefall. There is an extraordinary amount of potential within the industry to address these issues if we have government support, but we need to see it happen quickly," she urged.