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In today's Farming in Five, chief reporter Rachael Brown reports on a letter sent by the Efra Committee chair, Alistair Carmichael to the Farming Minister calling on the Government to focus on five key areas to improve fairness and resilience in the food supply chain. Later today Mr Carmichael will be presenting his food supply chain fairness bill in Parliament. And the absence of rural crime in the Government's Crime and Policing Bill has been branded 'unacceptable' by a Liberal Democrat MP

In today's Farming in Five, chief reporter Rachael Brown reports on yesterday's emergency roundtable meeting on SFI, with the Farming Minister criticised for providing lack of clarity on the what the future redesign of SFI will look like, and for showing a lack of empathy for those farmers who missed out on SFI. She also reports on farmers defending Scottish Minister Mairi Gougeon and criticising the level abuse she received online, as she announced she is stepping down from her post after more that half of her life in politics. And don't forget to sign up to our free webinar on Inheritance Tax ( March 27), where an expert panel will be unpicking any updates from the Spring Statement the day before

Victoria Vyvyan, president of the CLA, said the country's planning system was in ‘crisis' and was ‘stagnating growth in the countryside'

It is important to understand the feelings of the farming community pre and post Budget

This week from Íæż½ã½ã editor Olivia Midgley

In today's Farming in Five, chief reporter Rachael Brown analyses the fall out from the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), with the Farming Minister telling MPs that farmers were not given notice on closure as it would have led to a 'further spike in applications'. The National Trust says Defra's decision to close SFI to new applications will leave farmers facing a 'four month funding gap'. And she takes a look at the NFU's farmer confidence survey which is reportedly at an 'all time low'

Environmental groups back farmers and join condemnation of Government announcement

Despite the Government's own website stating that it would give farmers six week notice before the closure of SFI, the Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner said it was not possible, as it would have led to a ‘further spike in applications'

SFI24 now has more than 37,000 multi-year live agreements and has reached its ‘maximum limit' and can no longer accept new SFI applications from today