The Source

Walk around almost any new housing development a year or two after completion and a familiar picture begins to emerge. Lawns are patchy and poorly drained, shrubs are struggling, trees are staked but barely establishing and public open spaces look tired far sooner than they should. As a result - what was intended to be a selling point often becomes a source of complaint.

Since launching for invited applicants last year, the scheme has steadily expanded, enabling more farmers and land managers to access funding for complex environmental projects. And, at least £50 million will be available for new CSHT agreements this year, supporting targeted environmental improvements where they will have the greatest impact.

From nutritional oil crops and specialist food ingredients to seed production and medicinal crops, a growing range of options is becoming available. While the crops discussed below all have different end markets and agronomic requirements, they share a common advantage: they can help improve rotational diversity while creating access to specialist markets.

1967, 2001, 2007... Nobody knows the next number in the sequence. We all fervently hope there will not be one, but many of us believe there will. I write this with a heavy heart, and fully aware of the pain many of you will revisit as you read it. It is 25 years since the horror of the 2001 foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak, and a year since there were outbreaks in Germany, Slovakia and Hungary.

The clearest opportunities in regenerative and sustainable farming are likely to emerge where practical changes can be aligned to improved efficiency, stronger margins and greater resilience. Farmers are acting pragmatically, adapting practices in ways that reflect their individual systems and commercial realities.

Big Tech corporations and Big Ag firms are forming powerful alliances which are rapidly giving them control of farming under the guise of innovation. Cloud platforms and AI-driven decision tools are being integrated into all parts of industrial agriculture, from seeds to chemical inputs to machinery. This is shaping what technologies receive R&D, how decisions are made in food production, and even what the future of farming might look like.

While extreme heat may feel short-lived, hotter summers are becoming more frequent. With harvest 2026 approaching, now is the time to ensure teams are prepared to work safely during prolonged periods of high temperatures.

A new module from TIAH is aiming to tackle one of the most pressing and often overlooked challenges facing England’s farming and growing sector: mental health. 

"Regenerative agriculture is widely seen as a promising pathway toward more sustainable farming, but we still lack sufficient insight into the economic and environmental impacts of scaling it up,"

Communities across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are coming together to support a bid for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to become a UNESCO Biosphere – a prestigious status which could help boost sustainable development, improve people’s wellbeing and protect threatened environments.

Could grasslands supply a new source of dietary protein if processed into protein-rich ingredients, supporting agricultural diversification while increasing output and lowering livestock-related emissions?

An Irish study shows that solar photovoltaic systems can reduce emissions and energy costs on dairy farms, with spring-calving systems showing slightly stronger economic and environmental performance.