The EFRA Committee today publishes the Government’s Response
to its report on Soil Health,
which called for soil health to be put on the same footing as
water and air quality within government policy.
The Committee welcomes the Government’s positive response on some
of its recommendations, such as its assertion that it recognises
‘the value in establishing a shared understanding of "sustainable
soil management" within the agricultural sector’. Although a year
later than the Committee hoped, the Committee is also glad to see
a continued commitment to developing standardised ways of
measuring soils through soil health indicators by 2025.
The Committee is also pleased that the Government earlier this
year announced that it would raise some payment rates to farmers
and land managers for actions under the Sustainable Farming
Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreements,
echoing calls in the Committee’s report for enhanced payments to
support environmental gains. The Committee hopes that more
efforts like these can be replicated in the future, with a
particular focus on soil health.
However, on many other recommendations, the Committee regrets
that there is a vagueness in the Government’s response. For
instance, the aims of the Environment Agency’s Big Soil Stocktake
lack clarity, it is unclear how the Government’s farming
incentive schemes and guidance for farmers will be adapted to
focus more on soil health, and although reviews and reforms of
soil and fertiliser regulations are mentioned, it is not known
whether these will lead to meaningful change.
The Committee had recommended that the Government should address
issues in the food supply chain that encourage poor soil
management, including low profitability for farmers and
unsustainable consumer and retailer demands. The Government’s
response points to its June 2022 Food Strategy and its ongoing
engagement with the agri-food industry. However, it sets out few
concrete proposals for change.
A number of Government commitments lack deadlines: the Government
‘hopes’ to publish its new National Action Plan for Sustainable
Use of Pesticides ‘shortly’ and there is no set date for
determining how the Government will report on the effectiveness
of its farming subsidy schemes for improving the environment,
including soil health.
The Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Committee, Sir , said:
“We are glad that the Government shares our committee’s
concerns regarding the challenges facing soil health in England,
but we are disappointed that its response to our report is
noncommittal on several important measures, leaving much open to
an unclear review process. There is also a lack of clarity to be
found in the Government’s response, on questions such as who will
be responsible for ongoing soil monitoring once a baseline is
established and how this will be funded.
“While we wanted the Government to be more ambitious in its
targets, urging for over 90% of agricultural land to meet a
definition of “sustainably managed” by 2040, we are disappointed
that the Government has settled on a lower target in this area,
without explaining why.”
