Call for Farmer Insights into Profitability Challenges and Opportunities

The Soil Association is calling for farmers’ voices to contribute towards a DEFRA review into agricultural profitability, with the goal of overcoming some of the key challenges that face farmers on their organic/ agroecological transition journey.

The Defra Secretary Estate has asked Lady Batters (former NFU President) to come forward with recommendations for how to improve farm profitability. In her call for evidence, Minette Batters has asked stakeholder to identify opportunities and barriers to profitability in farming. The Soil Association is responding to the review. They will be highlighting the specific issues around profitability in the organic sector, as well as the profitability challenges more widely facing farmers who are moving towards more agroecological approaches. These include reducing synthetic inputs, building soil health and the specific challenges around horticulture. They are also keen to highlight the need for farmers to have access to baseline data and ongoing monitoring.

What are your challenges to profitability?

The Soil Association’s aim is to highlight the profitability challenges that you as a farmer face, as well as suggestions for government action, and examples of how moving to an agroecological system has improved profitability.

Contact the Soil Association

If you have suggestions for material that the Soil Association could include, please email policymail@soilassociation.org by Friday 4th July. Use the headline “Farm profitability review”. They will look for any common themes to include in their response. If you have specific suggestions for case studies, please flag these and the Soil Association will come back for further information.

Many thanks in advance for your contribution to this important project!

Find out more

Press release, published in April 2025: Former NFU President and farmer Baroness Minette Batters appointed by Defra to lead Farm Profitability Review