Member

The noble Baroness, Lady Grender, asked about small farms. We are developing the new schemes so that they work for as many different types of farm as possible—that includes smaller farms. For example, farms of between three and 50 hectares will be given priority access to apply for the SFI agreement from June this year, and we are also trying to make the new SFI offer simpler for all farmers, which might help particularly with small farms. As someone who has a very small farm, I should say that is incredibly helpful. When you have only a very small farm and you cannot necessarily afford to pay for a land agent to do your return or your application, it can become incredibly time-consuming, to the point that you actually wonder why you are bothering. I completely get that, which is why I am really pleased that we are looking to support small farms better.