“Reward innovation & give farmers more confidence”

For four generations, ​Thomas​​ ​Gent and his family have farmed the Fens of the Lincolnshire-Cambridgeshire border. Today, his uncle runs a poultry business alongside Thomas and his father’s arable business​ farming 950 hectares​, where they focus on cereals, wheats, oats, ​oil seed rape​​,​ beans, and various energy crops.  

In 2008, at ten years old, ​Thomas​​ ​watched his father and grandfather take a bold step in how they farm. After years of conventionally growing their produce, the family decided to try direct drilling, which is a system of sowing that does not require prior tilling in order to maintain soil structure and fertility. That year, that field produced a great yield with significantly lower diesel and input costs. Confident with these results, the generational farming duo decided to transition the entire operation to a direct drill system. Eighteen years later, Thomas is now getting ready to lead the business as his father looks to retire.  

Thomas (right) with his grandfather Tony (middle) and father Edward (left).

Over these past years, Thomas​​ has experimented with a whole range of different farming methods. He describes his approach as regenerative, which is, in his words, “farming whilst improving the soil, using nature rather than trying to destroy it.” His family were the first in their area to take this leap – despite skepticism from their neighbours. But the financial gains from the first trial field were enough to convince the Gents that: “if we’re not doing something completely different and crazy, then we’re not trying hard enough.” 

As more nature-friendly approaches to farming have taken root around the country, his neighbours began to see where the Gents were coming from. Farming on the Fens, land of both incredible agricultural productivity and very particular ecological challenges, drainage has always been the farm’s biggest concern. In the last few years, the family joined up with their neighbour to purchase a shared drain machine, which has been a gamechanger for both their operations. Sharing risks like these to invest in better practice has been critical to the family’s success. More on that later. 

With all this expertise under his wing, Thomas​​ joined a series of workshops run by FFCC this past summer, commissioned by Defra to inform their forthcoming Food and Farming Decarbonisation Plan. He enjoyed the variety of views in the (virtual) room: farmers, with commonalities and differences, coming together to discuss a shared challenge. However, he had some reservations.

Regeneratively grown produce from the Gent farm. 

The relationship between farmers and the government has been tense as of late, to say the least. The dithering over an inheritance tax, along with a messy funding rollout of the Sustainable Farming Initiative last month, are just two reasons why ​Thomas​​​ is wary of whether the government will genuinely commit to what was said in the workshops. For ​Thomas​​​, the ball is very much in the government’s court. 

What Thomas is sure of is that the political status quo is just not working. There’s no denying that budgets are tight – but, as Thomas says, that should not mean that farmers must burden the financial responsibility of making change: “Farmers are in a very tight situation and if you really want to hit those kind of net zero targets, it requires farmers to try or do more radically different things.” 

Ultimately, it’s neither fair nor feasible for farmers to make radical changes to their operations for net zero targets if they face all the risk.

Instead, ​​Thomas​​ wants to see radical changes in how government approaches financing a farming transition. He uses his own experience with agroforestry as an example. Integrating trees back into arable farming is a key part to his hopes for future regenerative practice. The Gents were lucky enough to be inspired by Stephen Briggs, a fellow local farmer with a successful agroforestry system. Even though his own farm could reap the environmental rewards of agroforestry, he knows planting at scale is required for significant change. 

“To have the kind of bravery to do at scale and the kind of finances to do at scale is scary, you know, it's really hard to shoulder that risk all on your own.”

Thomas tending to his crops on the family farm.

​​In a recent blog, FFCC’s Farming Policy Lead Dr Charlie Tavener offered some suggestions for how government can better finance solutions-oriented farming. At an individual level, farmers across the country are tapping into private finance and natural capital markets to innovate new approaches in emission reduction, nature protection, and generating new streams of income. The creativity and the money to fund it are there – the government now needs to more actively crowd in these funds in order to scale the solutions.​     ​​ 

​​Thomas​​​ agrees. “Reward innovation. Unless farmers are in a stable situation, they can't do that. Like I always say, you can't be a green business if your finances are in the red. So, it's really about giving the farmers enough confidence to be able to do something.” 

Looking to the future, ​Thomas​​​ is uncertain about how the government will translate what was said in the workshops into tangible action. “There’s a big difference between listening and, you know, writing down what everybody said to actually taking action.”  

​​But he’s hopeful that with change comes opportunity. “The public has never been as interested in agriculture as it is now. With that brings massive opportunity. Farmers need support in knowledge, finance and risk-sharing to be able to take the opportunities and grow our farming businesses.” ​​​ 

On Thomas’ farm, innovation and collaboration is out in full force. How can government help encourage this kind of approach in the sector, at scale, for a fairer, resilient and more sustainable farming future?