wWhen Debra and Tom Willoughby first arrived at their tenant’s farm in Nottinghamshire, they tried to recreate a culvert that ran through their farm grounds. Now organic farmers are relieved that they were refused permission because they have benefited from relationships with people passing through their farms. They have since opened new permissive footpaths on their land.
Farmers are often seen as vocal opponents of widespread access to rural areas. But a growing group of accessibility-friendly farmers have joined forces right to roam The campaign and how to open up more land for public enjoyment will be discussed this week Oxford Real Farming Conference,
“It’s really nice when we get people out into the yard – the positives far outweigh the negatives,” said Debra Willoughby, who runs organic beef cattle, grain and new agroforestry apple orchards near Normanton-on-Soar. Together they cultivate 157 hectares (387 acres). Loughborough. “The fields are very lonely places. Earlier, dozens of people used to work on this farm and now it is just me and my husband.
One positive for the Willoughbys and other farmers is finding new customers – especially as a growing number of farmers are trying to avoid the ups and downs of global commodity markets by selling produce directly to the public.
“If we have people coming in who are enjoying the landscape here, they’re your customers,” Willoughby said. “We need that connection with people otherwise what will stop them going to the supermarket? We have to put ourselves out there.”
The Willoughbys are planting more than 12,000 apple trees to make food and juice, and are converting their former dairy farm into agroforestry. While they are paying locals to plant trees this winter, they are also organizing tree planting days in the village for volunteers to get involved.
In England, only 8% of the countryside is designated as open access for walking, picnicking and other outdoor activities. A recent survey found that 71% of people were in favor of allowing access to the edge of fields if there is no safe alternative route.
According to the Right to Roam campaign, farmers are finding that having more people on their land helps alert them to potential theft, fire and fly-tipping.
“Farmers need to reconnect with their communities as much as we need to reconnect with nature. And the land is where we meet,” said Amy-Jane Beer Right to roam campaign. “Farmers are isolated and in that isolation it is very easy to consider someone coming to your land as a stranger. There’s this Irish saying – a stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet. With more people on your land, especially if they are local, strangers become a known quantity – they become your neighbours, friends and potentially your customers.
Members of Right to Roam’s access-friendly farmers working group are this week presenting at the Oxford Real Farming Conference – which was launched in 2010 as an alternative to the Oxford Farming Conference – on the benefits of opening up more land to people To discuss.
The Right to Roam campaign is demanding a default right of responsible access to land and water in Scotland, Scandinavia and other European countries, with exceptions for privacy, public safety, protection of young crops, livestock and sensitive wildlife.
But the National Farmers Union and the Country Land and Trade Union have claimed that Labour’s Abandoning the right to roam policy Their lobbying against the policy was a major victory for England and Wales in the months before the 2024 general election.
A growing number of landowners are in favor of cautiously increasing public access.
Joe Clark, a small farmer from South Devon, said: “I grew up on a farm and as a child I was told by many neighbors: ‘Get off my land!’ “My philosophy has been: ‘Come to my land’, but I want people to come here and have a really on-the-ground experience.”
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Clark hosts educational tours and camps – with a special focus on screen-free camps for teens on the hill Social Enterprise and A vegetable box plan With other farming. He is applying for the government’s new Sustainable Agriculture Incentive (SFI), but is disappointed that it does not include any support for new footpath construction or better incentives for educational trips.
“I would love to recommend to Defra what could be added to the SFI to encourage farmers to get people out of towns and cities and onto the land,” Clarke said. “It’s a shame there aren’t financial incentives to encourage public access.”
Guy Thallon, head of the 3,600-hectare Natural Environment Castle Howard The estate, in North Yorkshire, is taking part in the Oxford Real Farming Conference debate and said the estate has opened up new permissive footpaths to better connect existing public rights of way.
The estate is changing the way land is managed, incorporating a mix of traditional farming operations and tenant farmers as well as new forestry construction and a rewilding block.
“Obviously accessibility is at the forefront of our minds when we’re thinking about how we’ll make progress,” Thelon said. “We do not support a universal right to roam, but we believe that access to the natural environment is important for society and we are supportive of greater public access to land.”
Some public funds are already available to increase public access – woodland construction proposal In England a lump sum payment of up to £3,700 per hectare is provided to landowners who create publicly accessible woodland close to major towns and cities. But according to Thelon, a logical step would be to give landowners incentives to create new public access through their environmental management plans. “It would definitely be nice to see [government] Support for greater access,” he said.
Beer said adding public access building to existing environmental farm payments would be an “easy win” for the government. “It’s relatively cheap and hugely beneficial to public health, it’s a way of keeping people fit and healthy while also having better mental health – keeping people out of hospitals. Yes, there are costs in building new access infrastructure for the public, but there is much to be gained – and economic benefits too.