New applicants to the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) will only be able to put 25% of their land into six actions that take land out of food production, Defra has confirmed.

It comes after around 1% of farmers that applied to SFI 2023 applied to put 80% or more of their farm into six non-productive actions. Defra said today (25 March), that it will cap the six actions in order to "support farmers primary role of food production".

Defra ministers have been accused of a “dereliction of duty” following claims they are ignoring their own science and pursuing policies in England that will undermine national food security.

The claims come from the pro-science think tank Science for Sustainable Agriculture (SSA), which has written to the cross-party Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee, demanding an “urgent inquiry” into the impact of the government’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes.

The letter says a recent impact assessment of the ELM scheme, commissioned by Defra, identifies “multiple risks to both food production and the environment from its ‘land sharing’ policies”.

The drastic reduction in crops expected due to the wet weather has shown just how vulnerable British farms are, the NFU has warned.

The union said the government must boost UK food security as farmers continue to face wet weather, with many thousands of acres of farmland affected.

The warning is in response to an AHDB survey showing that yields of crops such as wheat, winter barley and oilseed rape are likely to be significantly reduced this year.

Researchers are set to harness the power of gene editing to address numerous challenges facing the UK potato sector. With new legislation allowing the commercial development of gene edited crops, the project could transform the sector.

Led by B-hive Innovations, the new research project, called TuberGene, is funded as part of UKRI’s National Engineering Biology Programme.

It aims to use new gene editing technology to address these challenges while securing a sustainable future for the sector. Researchers will focus on two key goals: reducing bruising-related discoloration and making potatoes quicker to cook.

A proposed tax on the carbon footprint of agricultural businesses in Denmark is being considered which, if implemented, could make it the first country to impose this type of taxation.

The potential tax is forecast to have a substantial impact on production within the Danish farming sector and has faced criticism from industry.

Denmark already has tough targets in place and aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030 compared to 1990 base levels.

It is integral to UK food security that issues regarding the ongoing insect decline are addressed, a cross party group of MPs have said in a new report. They have called for "effective and sustainable crop protection strategies to be demonstrated at a commercial scale" to address the issue.

The government must also begin to better support the development, regulation and practical application of pesticide alternatives. The calls have been made in a new report by the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee.

The government has unveiled legislation to modernise the Veterinary Medicines Regulations, including measures to help tackle antimicrobial resistance.

The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 set out the controls on the marketing, manufacture, distribution and possession of vet medicines and medicated feed. They are seen as a critical tool to help protect livestock and pet health, public health and the environment.

Modernising it further will see the government reduce regulatory burden; with new regulations facilitating the submission of one marketing authorisation application dossier and enabling common packaging to be used across the UK.

Labour will end exemptions for bee-killing pesticides that have already been outlawed in the EU but which the UK government has approved for four years in a row, the shadow environment minister has said.

This week, the government authorised the use of thiamethoxam, also known as Cruiser SB, on sugar beet crops – against the advice of its scientists, who said it would pose a threat to bees.

The shadow farming minister, Daniel Zeichner, told the Guardian it was “time to follow the science and stop using neonics”, and that Labour would stop emergency use of the pesticide.

Sugar beet growers will have access to seed treated with neonicotinoids this growing season, as scientists have predicted a serious risk of virus yellows infection, based on a burgeoning aphid population.

Defra passed the conditional emergency authorisation to use Cruiser SB, which contains the active substance thiamethoxam, in January. But this was subject to the predicted risk of virus yellows infection in the national sugar beet crop, based on the Rothamsted model, exceeding 65%.

Latest data from the British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) actually puts that risk at 83% in the absence of any disease controls, triggering the emergency authorisation for a third consecutive year.

A peer-reviewed scientific analysis of Defra’s badger control policy in England has revealed a 56% fall in bovine TB rates.

Defra started its badger control policy in 2013 to reduce the reservoir of infection in badgers and, in doing so, reduce rates of TB in cattle.

A new study by Colin Birch et al, published in Nature, analysed the effect of badger culling on bovine TB rates across 52 areas in England.