Farming for the Nation

In 2020 DEFRA commissioned a series of projects across the country to test new ideas and trial new approaches in the delivery of a future environmental land management schemes. The National Association of AONBs co-ordinated one such ‘Tests and Trial’ involving 12 AONBs in England called ‘Farming for the Nation’. This was designed to see how schemes could fit local conditions while reflecting national priorities.

In the North Pennines AONB we tested the co-design, with farmers, of land management plans, investigated the relationship between farm business profitability, farm outputs and inputs, and nature recovery objectives, and discussed with farmers some of the issues around payment mechanism and advice.

This final report presents our main findings and recommendations. It will form part of a wider report to Defra (due to be completed in July) produced by the National Association of AONBs, on behalf of the 12 participating AONBs.