New figures which reveal a huge underspend on farm schemes in England, have added to fears that the agricultural budget across the UK could be cut.

A report published by the UK government shows that unspent funds for farm schemes in England totalled £358m over the past three years.

Speaking at Stormont on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir referenced recent media reports, which suggest less funding could be made available for English farm schemes next year.

“I am concerned about how that could affect NI, and I will make strong representations to that effect,” he said.

Minister Muir is pressing for the annual total budget for NI agriculture, which equates to around £330m, to be index linked with inflation.

“I have engaged with my Scottish and Welsh counterparts on that recently, and I will engage with the Secretary of State on it in London next week,” he said.

The Alliance MLA also wants “a separate and additional capital fund” to be made available, to help NI farmers reach climate change targets and address other environmental issues.

“If we want to improve water and air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we need to fund and support agri-food to travel that journey,” he said.

English underspend

The new report on agricultural funding in England shows that the total expenditure equated to £2.136bn in 2023/34, which means £130m of earmarked funding went unused.

In the 2022/2023 financial year, the agricultural underspend in England stood at £103m and it was £125m the year before that.

National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw said the figures were “a kick in the teeth” and were due to new schemes not being rolled out in time to replace the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in England.

“For years, the NFU has pressed the need for the new schemes to be in place before reductions in BPS began, to avoid this very issue and avoid funding being left unspent at a time when farmers needed it most,” he said.

NI funding

In NI, a different approach is being taken to funding new farm schemes, which aims to minimise potential underspends. Cuts to area-based payments are to be driven by farmer uptake of new schemes, such as Farming With Nature.

However, the total funding that will be available for NI agriculture from April 2025 onwards remain unclear and it was key point raised by the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) in a new submission to the UK Treasury.

Speaking ahead of next month’s Autumn budget, UFU president Willian Irvine said the Treasury needs to give “a multi-annual, ring-fenced commitment to agriculture”.

“Our submission calls for increased financial assistance to ensure that NI’s farmers have essential resources so that they can continue producing high-quality, sustainable food, reducing the UK’s reliance on imports,” he said.