Addressing the possible shortfall of oak for the 2022/23 planting season
As we face the possibility of an insufficient supply of Oak for planting, find out how considering a more diverse mix of tree species can bring value to woodlands.
As we face the possibility of an insufficient supply of Oak for planting, find out how considering a more diverse mix of tree species can bring value to woodlands.
In June MMO colleagues visited 21 ports stretching from Kent to Cornwall to speak with commercial fishers about their experiences of fishing for non-quota species (NQS, also known as non-pressure stocks) - and their aspirations for future management of these ...
The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is now open for applications via the Rural Payments service. Through the SFI, farmers will be paid for looking after the natural environment in the course of their farming. This initial offer will pay farmers for taking care of their soil or assessing the condition of moorland. In this post, we'll share more about the application process.
Any farmer or land manager who receives BPS in England is eligible for free business advice during the early years of the agricultural transition. The current phase of support will close at the end of August. So far, 6,600 farmers have made use of this free advice. The final phase of support will open in October and will be scaled up.
It's been almost 2 weeks since we opened the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for applications, so we thought now would be a good time to share an update on how it's going so far.
In this post, we'll share a summary of the second meeting of the UK Agriculture Partnership (UKAP). It was held at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise in Northern Ireland. The topic of the meeting was soil health.
On 12th December 2018, at 7am, a fish tagging team began fishing on the tuna grounds within St Helena, with the goal of tagging a number of yellowfin and bigeye tuna. The team, including staff from St Helena Government, Stanford ...
Today's blog looks at Government action to tackle air pollution
Spring and summer can trigger a range of problems for fisheries, and it's important to understand how to prepare and protect them. It's vital that anglers and fishery managers recognise the risks posed by warmer weather; remain vigilant for signs ...
It's really encouraging that so many vessels across our English inshore have installed their onboard I-VMS devices and received the grant funding to re-imburse their costs, but we realise there is still much work to do. We have now hit ...
Today there has been widespread coverage of warnings by Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency and Interim Chair of the Green Finance Institute, of how widespread greenwashing is compromising efforts to prepare for climate impacts. Her comments have ...
New initiatives announced by the UK Government at the UN Ocean Conference this week to progress our mission to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030 have received coverage in outlets including the Independent, Evening Standard and ...
June and July 2007. The most severe and widespread inland flooding we have seen since 1947 with more than 55,000 properties flooded, mainly across Yorkshire, the Midlands, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Many more lost essential services such as ...
The Fertiliser Taskforce is made up of representatives from industry bodies and the UK's devolved administrations. The taskforce addresses the impact of global supply pressures on farming. It seeks to improve market confidence and help provide farmers with the information they need to make business decisions on fertiliser use. The second meeting of the Fertiliser Taskforce was chaired by Minister Churchill. In this post, I'll share a summary of the meeting.
There has been straight coverage reporting the COP15 biodiversity conference will be rescheduled to take place in Montreal, Canada in a number of outlets including the Guardian, BBC News Online, Business Green and iNews. The UK Government has welcomed confirmation ...
In today's blog we look at the launch of a new consortium bringing researchers from across the UK together to tackle bird flu
We are hosting a series of engagement sessions with fishers to kickstart conversations on development a Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) for demersal non quota stocks in the Channel. These events are just the start of our programme of engagement with ...
Today we are looking at Minister Churchill's visit to a flagship air quality monitoring site
We are supporting industry to meet the requirement to have an I-VMS device installed and operational before the introduction of the Statutory Instrument (SI), scheduled for late 2022. I-VMS will help us understand individual and fleet fishing patterns and ultimately ...
Actions include producing a new national assessment of flood risk, an updated national coastal erosion risk map and new long term investment scenarios, to better inform future investment decisions.
On Thursday 2 June, Fisheries Minister Victoria Prentis provided an update regarding the investigation into huge numbers of crabs and lobsters washed up along the coast of the North East last year.
It's hard to get started in farming, or any related land-based business. Newcomers to the industry (usually known as "new entrants") face all sorts of barriers. It's challenging for them to find land, secure finance and progress their businesses. When we published the Agricultural Transition Plan towards the end of 2020, we said that we would establish a support scheme for new entrants, and make the whole process easier. This blog post is an update on what we've learned so far by working collaboratively with people across the sector and the next steps.
Before Easter our Marine Conservation, South and Marine Planning teams met with recreational boat users in Studland Bay and held drop-in sessions and talks about the voluntary no anchor zone in the area. These talks were in aid of raising ...
Before we launched Improving Farm Productivity in January, we made the manual available for people to look at on GOV.UK. Feedback suggested you found this helpful. So, ahead of its launch in June, we are making the manual for the next theme available today: Adding Value. In June, you can apply for a grant for buildings, machinery or equipment so that producers can add value to eligible agricultural products after they are harvested or reared.
In November, we started to offer agreements to farmers taking part in the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot.  In this post, we'll share an overview of the things we've learned over the past 6 months and how we're incorporating them into the design of the full scheme.