09/06/22 - Fertiliser costs, land use, the finances of nature recovery

Fertiliser prices have tripled in the last year and many arable farmers rely on them to produce cereal crops. We hear from farmers at 'Cereals 2022', the arable event of the year, where some significant news about the future of fertiliser manufacturing was breaking: CF Fertilisers UK, which makes much of the fertiliser used by British farmers, has announced it’s to close one of its two manufacturing plants.

An ‘off-setting roadmap’ has been drawn up by more than 300 industry leaders from business, finance, and environmental and land management organisations. It sets out how to make the UK an appealing prospect for ‘nature-based’ investment.

All this week we're looking at land use on Farming Today. With the government’s new environmental land management scheme set to replace the Basic Payment financial support farmers get now, many farmers are taking a closer look at the economics of looking after the environment. We hear from one farmer making extensive use of agri-environment schemes.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced for BBC Audio by Caitlin Hobbs