Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a keynote address to the NFU Conference this week – the first time a British PM has done so since 2008.

He told farmers at Birmingham’s ICC, ‘I’ve got your back’, as he announced a package of support for rural communities and committed to ‘every penny’ of the £2.4bn farming budget going to agriculture.

He announced that the Government will open the largest ever grant offer for farmers in the coming financial year, expected to total £427m, including funding for technology and productivity schemes.

The Scottish Farmer: Mr Sunak is the first PM to address the NFU conference since 2008Mr Sunak is the first PM to address the NFU conference since 2008 (Image: web)

The Prime Minister said: “While the importance of farmers will never change – farming is going through its biggest change in a generation. And as farmers do so, this Government will be by their side. They have been dealing with soaring global prices in things like fuel and fertiliser. So, we’ve been working hard to get inflation down – from 11.1% last year to 4% now. And we’re increasing payments in our farming schemes by an average of 10%.

“They are also at the forefront of innovation – from gene editing to boost resilience to disease, to automation to help harvest crops. And while thanks to you we enjoy good quality food all year-round global events – including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – have put food security back at the top of the agenda. We’ll never take our food security for granted. We’ve got a plan to support British farming – and we’re going further again today.”

Around £220m will be injected into the future-focused technology and productivity schemes to ensure farmers can invest in automation. It will also fund energy measures, such as rooftop solar, to safeguard land for food production.

“I hope all parties commit to hosting a domestic food security summit each year. Annual assessments will be critical to all of this.”

The funding doubles investment in productivity schemes, growing the grant offer from £91m last year to £220m next year to keep up with demand.

In addition, the Government will double the Management Payment for SFI so those with existing agreements will receive up to an extra £1000 this April and it will be extended to Countryside Stewardship mid-tier for the first year of agreements starting by March 2025. This means that the 11,000 farmers that have applied for SFI will receive that top up this spring.

The Prime Minister also announced a new annual UK-wide Food Security Index to capture and present the data needed to monitor levels of food security, that the Farm to Fork Summit will be held annually, and a £15m fund to help tackle food waste from the farm gate.