Game Changers: Janet Hughes, the civil servant

Janet Hughes, Defra’s director of farming and countryside, has been nominated for our special Game Changers Award, which will be announced at the Farmers Weekly Awards on 3 October 2024.

Janet has built a reputation for being willing to listen to farmers – and acting on their feedback.

In her role at Defra, she is responsible for implementing some of the biggest changes to agricultural support many farmers have ever seen.

A big part of her job is the introduction of the government’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme for England – including the Sustainable Farming Incentive, which rewards farmers who adopt environmental measures alongside food production.

See also: Game Changers: Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, the diversity champion

Huge policy changes can be immensely challenging for everyone involved – including the people and businesses affected. Add the phase-out of the Basic Payment Scheme into the mix and ELM is no exception.

Amid the upheaval, Janet has engaged with farmers to understand how these policies can be improved to meet their needs while still delivering desired outcomes rather than unintended consequences.

On the ground

“I’ve always worked on things which are about making things work better for people,” Janet says. “I’m a student of failure in government – and a lot of the root cause is often not understanding actually how things will work on the ground.”

A previous job at London’s City Hall meant “lots of work that involved talking to Londoners about what was happening. They were always able to shed light on things that just were not understood inside the organisation”.

It was a lesson she brought to Defra. “If we want these reforms to work, we have to understand things from the farmers’ point of view, otherwise they won’t participate – and they won’t make any changes at all.”

Engaging with farmers – whether in person, online or at high-profile farm events – has meant sticking her head above the parapet and often attracting criticism. She tries not to take it personally.

It’s a team effort, adds Janet, with lot of civil servants working to better understand and engage with farmers at a number of Defra bodies – including the Rural Payments Agency – as well as within the department itself.

Good reason

 “I have a rule which is: listen to what is being said and ignore the tone, because if someone is frustrated and having a pop, they’ve probably got a good reason and there’s probably something you can do to help.”

ELM has been tweaked several times in response to farmer feedback, and will continue to evolve, she says. “If we were to declare it done at some point, it would soon start to become out of date as science and practice moves on.

“We’re always learning more about how things work on the ground for farmers as they go through more seasons of trying out these different actions – and we’ve got to make sure that the scheme evolves in an orderly way, too.

“That’s how you avoid having a massive, disruptive big change all at once and keep things moving in the right direction.”