It’s so uplifting to be awakened by the sound of bird song this time of year. Spring is my favourite season, promising new life from the slumber of winter darkness is always a joy and motivation to get going.

In contrast, I felt great sadness and anger with the news of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). I considered the scheme one of the best in the world. Used correctly, it improved the greatest asset on a farm – soil.

About the author

Tim Parton

Tim Parton manages 300ha in South Staffordshire growing winter wheat, OSR, spring barley, beans, oats, lupins and wild flowers as part of a biological farming system. He grows cover crops and grass for haylage across sandy clay loam soils.

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To close the window with no warning is outrageous. Do the people who make these decisions ever consider the consequences of their actions? The mental anguish it has caused is completely unfathomable.

See also: Suffolk wheat grower goes for broad-spectrum disease control at T1

How can you plan for the future lacking trust in your assumed leaders? Did SFI fail due to people taking advantage of it? Did it fail because too many growers put down legume fallow and the government/powers that be had no idea how much it was going to cost? Or did SFI fail because there is simply no money in the pot, so they basically cannot afford it?

The aims of the scheme were perfect in my opinion. It aimed to heal the damage that has been done to our soils and our planet. Government always talks about “public money for public goods” which is what this scheme provided. Now, we have even less food security and we are not investing for the generations to come.

Ministers just do not understand farming and the importance of food security. With the world in such a volatile position, surely, it’s more important than ever to keep home production to an all-time high, as you never know when supplies are going to stop. 

On a brighter note, we, as the Green Farm Collective, have launched our own certified regenerative flour, which is on sale through Eurostar Foods.

I had the pleasure of tasting it by indulging in a pizza made from our flour at a food and drink conference in London. It was the best pizza I’ve ever tasted. This will bring a nice premium to our growers springing forward.