The Farming Profitability Review 2025, authored by Baroness Batters, the respected former president of the National Farmers’ Union, paints a stark picture of UK agriculture under pressure from volatile markets, extreme weather, and rising input costs. Policy uncertainties – such as inheritance tax reforms and the loss of subsidies – are compounding the strain, leaving many farms marginal or loss-making.
“Many are currently facing huge economic challenges to produce high quality, affordable food and meet environmental demands,” Batters said. “Lack of clarity on finances and policy is leaving many farmers I’ve spoken to questioning the viability of their farming business.”
Agtech promise meets practical roadblocks
While respondents expressed excitement about technological and scientific advances – particularly precision breeding – the report warns that innovation often fails to translate into on-farm impact.
Funding is often directed toward academic research with limited practical application, and smaller farms feel excluded from schemes geared toward tech-savvy businesses with dedicated support staff. “There is widespread concern that outcomes and recommendations from research are not passed down to farmers in a useful and meaningful way,” Batters said.
A lack of digital skills exacerbates the problem, with many farmers unaware of how to leverage existing tools or interpret data to improve productivity.
Call for a ‘new deal’ and one-stop support hub
The review sets out 57 recommendations to boost resilience and profitability, including “quick wins” such as easing reservoir construction and improving access to finance. Longer-term priorities include tackling workforce shortages – the “single biggest” barrier for horticulture – through investment in automation and robotics.
Batters also proposes a ‘Sustainable FARM Service’, a one-stop-shop dashboard for advice, grants, and knowledge exchange, to simplify the current “complex” plethora of fragmented support channels.
Data and skills: The missing link
Improved data use is central to the report’s vision, with calls for real-time benchmarking tools, climate risk forecasting, and digital platforms to empower decision-making. However, knowledge gaps and lack of digital literacy remain major obstacles. “Some farmers do not understand how adopting different practices could benefit their business,” Batters noted.
A reset in how we value food
Beyond technology, Batters urges a cultural shift in how food and farming are valued. She advocates regenerative agriculture at scale and food, cooking and agriculture placed on school curriculum to inspire “the farmers, food technologists, nutritionists, and agronomists of the future”.
She also implies consumers need to pay more for their food, noting the UK has had the third most affordable food, per income spend of any country in the world. “Our health is deteriorating, the NHS is struggling to cope, a large part of this problem is the foods we are eating,” she said. “We have an opportunity, a duty, to enable a dietary step change, by restoring ‘whole foods’ as the foundation of our national diet.”
