What happens on the farm, does not stay on the farm

Because agriculture has a large impact on national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for 68% of nitrous oxide and 47% of methane emissions, mitigating farm emissions is essential to achieving the UK’s 2050 net zero target. Farms are diverse, complex systems, so experimentation is needed to establish which combination of practices work best on each farm. Farms are also open systems, and some experiments will require multiple neighbouring farms to work together to get the maximum benefit.

To support farmers in experimenting and taking risks as a group, this project will explore the design of a new model of collective insurance for farmers trying new climate-smart practices as a cohort, across a catchment. The project will consult with farmers and insurance companies to understand what will work for them. It will produce reports on farmers’ needs and matching solutions and tools to advocate for change.

Project lead: Zainab Oyetunde-Usman, Rothamsted Research

Project members: Simon Deacon, Portsmouth Water; Jade Hemsley, Natural England; Rachel Opitz, Glasgow University; Joana Ferreira, SRUC; Alison Carswell, Rothamsted Research

Findings

• The project established a gap in collective mechanisms and the need for innovative products such as collective insurance to drive substantial uptake of Net Zero Farm innovations.
• The project established that there are currently few collective actions – farm practices are mostly individually driven and there is a need for collective mechanisms to be tailored to different farm practices.
• The need for further research to model products and experiment with farm clusters linking it to farm and biodiversity innovations.

Suggestions for further research

Our project aimed to encourage insurance companies such as NFU Mutual to bundle insurance with net zero practices to encourage adoption. Further research will be needed in modelling collective farm insurance products and trialling these products with farm clusters and testing their scalability.