Farm incomes fall by 20% in a year due to weather, Covid and Brexit
Farming is still important in many of our most remote communities and this story reveals the gradual unwinding of the divisive impact of Brexit and the pandemic in combination in rural places. In a story which could also be true of housing, health or a number of other themes which have put rural winners and rural losers cheek by jowl and in increasingly starker contrast it tells us:
Farm incomes dropped drastically last year, as poor weather combined with the impact of the pandemic and Brexit-related issues wiped close to a billion pounds off the UK’s farming economy and increased hardship for many small farmers.
Total income from farming, calculated annually by the government, fell from nearly £5.2bn in 2019 to just over £4.1bn in 2020, the lowest value in real terms since 2007.
The Covid-19 lockdown last spring left many farmers reeling as their core market in supplying the catering business vanished overnight. Farmers had to pour fresh milk down the drain as they struggled to refocus on supplying supermarkets.
Extreme weather also took a big toll, with heavy rain and storms early in the year preventing planting before one of the driest springs on record. The wheat harvest was down sharply, and other key crops such as potatoes suffered. Overall, there was a drop of £999m in the value of crop output, though livestock value increased by about £490m over the year.
Tom Bradshaw, vice-president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “Volatility is something farmers are used to managing but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with, especially when there continues to be so much uncertainty about future changes to agricultural policy, and lack of clarity over new [subsidy] schemes.”