Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs Daniel Zeichner said:

• As we set out in our Plan for Change, we are focused on supporting our farmers, supporting rural economic growth and boosting Britain's food security. This includes:
• Setting up a new farming profitability unit within the department.
• Extending the Seasonal Worker visa route for five more years giving farms a pipeline of workers and certainty to grow their businesses. Annual quota reviews will ensure we strike the right balance – supporting farms while gradually reducing visa numbers as we develop alternative solutions.
• Backing British produce: The Government is committed to using its own purchasing power to back British produce, with an ambition, where possible, for half of food supplied into the public sector to be produced locally or certified to high environmental standards. For the first time ever, the Government will review food currently bought in the public sector and where it is bought from. This is a significant first step to understanding how to make the most of the Government's purchasing power.
• Using planning reforms to support food production: Ensuring our reforms make it quicker for farmers to build the buildings, barns and other infrastructure they need on their farms to boost food production.
• Diversifying income streams: Helping farmers make additional money from selling surplus energy from solar panels and wind turbines by accelerating connections to the grid and support them during difficult harvests and supply shocks.
• A fair supply chain: Boosting profitability through fair competition across the supply chain. New rules for the pig sector will come this spring, ensuring contracts clearly set out expectations and changes can only be made if agreed by all parties. Similar regulations for eggs and fresh produce sectors will follow with the government ready to intervene with other sectors if needed.
• £110 million investment in technology: The Farming Innovation Programme which supports research and development of agri-technology for farmers, for example the chemical free cleaning for integrated milking equipment, which lowers energy costs and chemical use. The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund provides grants of up to £25,000 to buy new equipment such as electric weeders to reduce chemical use.
• Protecting farmers in trade deals: The government will uphold and protect our high environmental and animal welfare standards in future trade deals.
• Strengthening Britain's biosecurity: Setting up a new National Biosecurity Centre to transform the Animal and Plant Health Agency animal health facility at Weybridge, investing £200 million to improve our resilience against animal disease to protect farmers and food producers.

• £5 billion for the farming budget over two years – with the largest ever directed at sustainable food production and nature's recovery in our country's history. ELM schemes will remain at the centre of our offer for farmers and nature, with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery all continuing.
• £60 million through the Farming Recovery Fund to support farmers affected by unprecedented extreme wet weather last winter

• On cereal farms, a combination of challenging weather conditions and lower output prices are forecast to result in a substantial drop in output from crops (most notably wheat). However, this follows exceptional highs in 2021/22 and 2022/23.