Flooding of UK farmland is making the headlines. The Met Office, in their latest State of the UK Climate report, confirmed that the UK has become slightly wetter and significantly hotter over the last few decades. Flooding has contributed to England having its second worst harvest in 2024 since 1983 after record-breaking wet weather last winter. Recent rainstorms have meant many farmers were unable to plants crops. Sea levels are also rising, summers are becoming hotter and drier on average and wildfire risks are increasing. All this is hurting nature as well as food supplies. 

Alarm bells should be ringing. With the tri-annual Defra food security report due in December and the next Climate COP 29 underway in Baku, Azerbaijan, the very real challenges that more erratic weather presents to nature, farming and food supplies should be high on agendas.  The potential of nature and nature-based farming systems, alongside wider nature based approaches, to deliver lasting solutions ought to be getting significant consideration and support. It's good to see new flooding measures announced this month by Defra and that these recognise the need to be supporting “more innovative approaches to flood management such as nature-based approaches and sustainable drainage”. This needs to be prioritised.  

Building nature-based climate action

Improving climate resilience and restoring nature are mutually reinforcing in farmed systems and need to be supported. Healthy ecosystems, abundant flora and fauna, and stronger soils all help make farmland far more resilient to the effects of extreme weather.  

Four nature-based solutions should be fast tracked  

• Increasing vegetation cover, for instance with riparian buffers, cover crops and agroforestry, to absorb and retain water through the root systems. 

• Protecting soil as degraded soil is less able to retain water. Using regenerative and organic agricultural practices, like cover crops, more complex rotations, and reducing chemical inputs to improve soil and reduce disturbance allow soils to absorb more water during heavy rain and retain it in times of drought. 

• Restoring rivers to a near-natural state by reintroducing the native beaver, and restoring wetlands - areas of land that are either permanently or seasonally covered with water. Wetland ecosystems naturally filter and retain water. 

• Restoring peatlands – critical nature and carbon rich habitats which can retain huge amounts of water if they are in a good state. Rewetting peat is crucial, through restoring habitat or adopting sustainable practices such as paludiculture, and removing harmful activities such as inappropriately planted trees and drainage for agriculture. 

The political imperative  

All these measures will require political will and budgets to ensure land managers can make the changes for the long term. The Wildlife Trusts spent time at the party conferences this year and the issue of climate resilience and the ongoing flooding issues frequently came up. At the Labour Party Conference, we co-hosted a session about farming for food security and nature restoration. It was chaired by Abi Kay, Deputy Editor of Farmers Weekly, with farmers, councillors and MPs on the issue of nature-based farming. There was strong support for Nature Based Solutions, the need for a land use framework, and engaging the public in the changes were also prominent in the debate.    

An event we co-hosted with the Conservative Environment Network at the Conservative Party Conference was titled ‘Food security under threat: how can we tackle farmland flooding and drought?’. Sitting MPs, councillors and farmers spoke about their concerns, and you can watch it here. We discussed how the concerns on allowing certain parts of land to flood, restoring forests and nature habitats like ponds, and reintroducing beavers, remain controversial. How can we get the political and community buy-in we need to protect our farmers, ecosystems and our food security from growing water risks? We co-produced a briefing to support the event outlining just how vital nature is to our food security and making some key issues and solutions  

The MPs, farmers and councillors on the panels and in the audience, stressed the need for effective joined up policy on this, especially when it comes to planning and permissions so famers and land managers can quickly act to manage water well.  

Public and market support for nature-based solutions on farm

The role of farmers and growers in reducing climate emissions, capturing carbon and adapting land to be climate prepared depends on whether the public and private support is there for the changes they need to make.  

Public finance to support the nature-based approaches above should be a priority – ensuring nature restoration, farm resilience and food supplies as well as helping to tackle issues for wider communities such as flooding and drought.  

Our recent blog on the 2024 budget and environmental land management (ELM) schemes – the primary tool to halt nature’s decline by 2030 and to meet Net Zero by 2050 - outlines where changes are needed. Poorly designed support schemes, for farmers at early stages or those already doing much to deliver environmental benefits, must be sorted as the current issues will affect their ability to manage climate instability.  

Training and advice and robust enforcement of regulations are also all needed to provide the right conditions for farmers and growers to act on climate and nature-based solutions.  

Critically, we also need firm action to ensure the market plays fair so that farmers can take the right actions without being penalised at the farmgate. Price squeezes and demands of the food industry, such as on standards, make it hard for farmers to consider new measures - such as lowering stock levels or using crops rotations to help soil recovery, leaving some land aside for nature or flooding, producing food to more appropriate cosmetic standards to reduce chemical use and waste - all these should be supported by the food buyers. A just transition for farmers is vital if we are going to get timely and well-designed actions in the right places.  

 
Watch out for more work by The Wildlife Trusts on these critical issues facing farmers and society.