Questions remain over Government’s plan for improving soil health
21 March 2024
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.
- Read the Government Response (HTML)
- Read the Government Response (PDF)
- Inquiry: Soil Health
- Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
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.
Chair's comment
The Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Sir Robert Goodwill, 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.”
Further information
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