Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey visits Norfolk farm

The senior government figure – who represents the Suffolk Coastal constituency – visited National Farmers’ Union (NFU) Norfolk county chairman Tim Papworth’s farm – Lodge Farm at Felmingham, North Walsham on Friday, May 12.

She hosted a roundtable discussion with NFU members about progress with the roll-out of the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes.

She toured the farm – which is a specialist potato producer and contract farms arable land – before meeting East Anglian farmers to talk about a range of topics including seasonal labour, tenancies and the Plan for Water.

Ms Coffey said it was “an opportunity to hear more about the innovations arable farmers are making to extend their growing seasons, as well as listening to the challenges they face and where government can help”.

She added: “I thank the Norfolk branch for gathering this diverse mix of East Anglian farmers together to hear more about how they’re producing food while protecting nature and enhancing the environment through our Environmental Land Management schemes.”

The Norfolk meeting preceded the government’s UK Farm to Fork Summit which brought together representatives from across the food supply chain.

Mr Papworth said: “As  NFU county chair, I welcomed the opportunity to host the Secretary of State today.

“This was a chance to discuss some really important farming issues, from water availability to labour shortages, during a farm tour that took in the beautiful and productive farmland of North Norfolk.”

Ms Coffey also visited the John Innes Centre in Norwich while in Norfolk to learn about its world-leading research aimed at delivering healtheir and sustainably produced food.

She met researchers Professor Wendy Harwood and Dr Penny Hundleby in the Crop Transformation Unit to discuss the importance of new breeding technologies such as genome editing, to complement current plant breeding and speed up improvements to major crops such as wheat and oilseed rape.

The visit also included a short tour of the John Innes Centre’s Horticultural Services facility – currently undergoing a programme of major modernisaton – and the Germplasm Resources Unit, a unique resource of seed and germplasm collections used by crop researchers and breeders nationally and internationally based at the John Innes Centre.