Farm Profitability Review shows place for pulses

The Farm Profitability Review clearly sets out the potential for pulses to help farmers build resilience, while contributing to food production with lower environmental impact and at lower cost.

This ambition is fully supported and strengthened through the inclusion of pulse crops within arable rotations.

We welcome Baroness Batters’ call for protein crops, such as peas and beans, to be incorporated into the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), and her recognition of their ability to deliver multiple public goods.

These include benefits for human and livestock nutrition, as well as reducing reliance on imported soya. Pulses are an integral part of any such strategy, and work is progressing apace to further demonstrate their value, both economically and environmentally.

One example is the NCS project, a four-year project funded by Defra through Innovate UK, which hopes to increase UK pulse and legume cropping and reduce reliance on imported soya.

The report also highlights the need for SFI to be more closely linked to food production by incentivising farming optimisation through SFI options, including pulses and circular protein crops such as peas and beans.

It has long been a mystery to PGRO why these clearly environmentally beneficial, commercially viable cropping options have remained unrecognised and, worse still, actively excluded.

Baroness Batters further recommends the creation of a scheme for those farmers unable to access the SFI. She suggests this should include soil baselining, protein crops (peas and beans), pulses and oilseeds, alongside existing SFI options that deliver greater resilience.

We would go one step further and argue that such a scheme should be available to all farmers who wish to participate.