The environment secretary also pledged there would be “no more sudden, unexpected closures” of farming payment schemes, as she set out reforms to the flagship environmental programme for England, the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).
Last March, the SFI, which pays farmers in England for “public goods” such as insecticide-free farming, wildflower strips and managing hedgerows, was suddenly closed because funding had been fully allocated for the year.
At the time, the NFU described the closure as “another shattering blow to English farms”.
There has been ongoing uncertainty since then over the programme, a key part of the environmental land management schemes (Elms) which replaced agricultural subsidies after Brexit.
A farming profitability review by former NFU president Baroness Minette Batters, commissioned by the government, warned late last year the sector was “bewildered and frightened”, with inheritance tax and SFI payment changes causing significant ongoing concern.
On Thursday, Reynolds outlined plans for what she described as a “simpler, fairer and more stable” scheme, admitting “mistakes were made” over the payments in the past.
She said the first application window for the new scheme would be in June and would be for small farms under 50 hectares (120 acres) and those not already in a payment scheme. A second wider application window would open from September for all farms.
She backed the overall approach of using agricultural payments to pay for environmental benefits, telling farmers at the conference: “Protecting the environmental foundations of farming isn’t separate from profitability, it’s essential to it.”
The government was looking at changes, including slimming down the number of different nature-friendly farming initiatives funded, limiting the amount of land that could be put into an action, and considering a cap on the amount of money a farm business could receive for SFI, she said.
The Wildlife Trusts said it was now “vital” that the farm payments budget for environmental schemes “is considerably increased” to effectively tackle climate change and wildlife decline.