Thousands of UK nature-farming contracts to end in December, leaving farmers uncertain

Thousands of long-running farm conservation payments under the Countryside Stewardship (CS) scheme will end in December, leaving many farmers uncertain about the fate of environmental projects they say require long-term planning and funding.

A Freedom of Information request by the National Farmers' Union (NFU) found 5,830 CS agreements are due to stop at the end of the year. The agreements fund measures such as insecticide-free farming, wildflower strips and hedgerow restoration that are designed to benefit wildlife and soil health as well as provide landscape and public goods.

Farmers said the move has come with little warning and threatens to unravel work begun under the CS scheme. Gloucestershire arable and livestock farmer David Barton said he felt "completely abandoned" after learning his agreement would end and that plans to transfer his scheme into the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) were thrown into doubt when SFI applications were closed earlier this year.

"This came out of the blue and with no clear direction. I think it's absolutely woeful of any government to not have that direction," Barton said. He added that many environmental projects are expensive, require forward planning and could quickly deteriorate without continued support.

Warwickshire arable farmer Mark Meadows, who also faces the December 31 end date, described the loss of CS payments as an additional blow after a year of poor yields and falling prices. "To top it all off, we don't know what's going to happen with our environmental land," he said.

The NFU has urged the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to allow existing CS agreements to continue for an additional year while a long-term plan for environmental land management is developed. NFU deputy president David Exwood said he had written to Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner to press the case and called for urgent clarity from the department.

Defra said it was working with farmers to build a more profitable farming system and remained committed to investment in nature-friendly farming. A department spokesperson said it was aware some agreements were ending in the months ahead and was "considering how best to deliver for the environment, the public and farmers." The spokesperson did not set out a timetable for any transitional arrangements requested by the NFU.

Many of the agreements ending this year are being phased out as the government transitions from legacy EU-era support schemes to post‑Brexit environmental land management programmes, including the Sustainable Farming Incentive. In March, the government closed SFI applications after the available funding for the year was allocated, a move that generated upset among farmers who had hoped to transfer commitments from older schemes into the replacement programmes.

Countryside Stewardship agreements have been used by farmers to secure payments for actions intended to improve habitats for pollinators and birds, reduce runoff and promote soil health. Farmers and environmental groups warn that sudden gaps in funding can undermine those outcomes because many interventions require multi-year management, advance purchase of seed mixes or capital works such as fencing and planting.

Defra has previously said that its suite of post‑Brexit schemes is intended to pay for environmental outcomes as well as food production, but the timing of scheme closures and the opening or allocation of new funding has created uncertainty for some land managers. With agricultural margins squeezed by lower yields and volatile prices, several farmers said the loss of guaranteed scheme payments heightens financial pressure on businesses that have invested in environmental measures.

The NFU's findings have heightened calls from farming organisations for clearer transitional arrangements and for Defra to provide an explicit plan for how payments and land-management commitments will be supported through the shift to new schemes. The department's next public updates and any decisions on transitional flexibility will be closely watched by both farmers and environmental groups concerned about the continuity of habitat and species protections across the farming landscape.