England's farmers fear they will be left unable to restore nature after funding freeze

Farmers fear they will no longer be able to afford to restore nature in England and reduce their carbon footprint after government funding for doing this was frozen.

- Helena Horton

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, recently announced that the sustainable farming incentive (SFI), which pays farmers for making space for nature on their land, would be paused and reformed before June's spending review. The scope of the scheme and its budget are being reassessed.

He is considering blocking farmers who make a lot of money from agriculture from applying for the scheme, which is part of a package of payments that replaced the EU's common agricultural policy and paid land managers for the amount of land in their care, with the aim of paying farmers to look after nature.

In England 70% of land is farmed, so if nature is to recover, farmers need support to make space for nature in their land. This includes planting trees and hedges, digging ponds, and leaving strips of land for wildflowers.

Amelia Greenway, 24, farms 900 acres on the National Trust's Killerton estate in Devon. Greenway, who farms cattle and pigs, was applying for £94,000 worth of SFI payments when the application was frozen.