What the Farming Roadmap 2050 Means for UK Horticulture
Defra has released the long-awaited Farming Roadmap 2050, outlining its future aims and ambitions for the agricultural industry over the next 25 years (1). It is the first document of its kind and provides long-term direction for the sector as Basic Payments come to an end and agriculture transitions towards a more nature-focused payment system.
The Roadmap is the result of regional and national workshops, online focus groups and wider engagement with the agricultural community. One of the central messages from the industry was that food production should not be sidelined by environmental objectives. Instead, environmental improvements need to happen alongside, rather than in competition with, the priority of producing food.
This is reflected in the four priorities identified in Minette Batters鈥� Farming Profitability Review: productivity, profitability, sustainability and resilience. Defra has used these themes to structure the roadmap, making clear that economically sustainable farm businesses are central to achieving long-term agricultural goals.
Figure 1 - How the Farming Roadmap brings together government priorities for farming - graphic from the Farming Roadmap 2050
For horticulture, one of the biggest challenges has been the lack of long-term certainty. Growers have repeatedly highlighted the need for clearer direction to support investment and business planning. In response to this, a horticulture-specific growth plan is due to be released, overseen by the Farming and Food Partnership Board (FFPB), which should provide more detail on how the sector鈥檚 productivity and ambitions will be achieved.
A diverse sector with unique challenges
Horticulture is a unique sector that depends heavily on skilled labour, energy and water. It is also incredibly diverse, ranging from strawberries grown in glasshouses to carrots in the field, apples in orchards and lettuce produced in hydroponic systems. The importance of providing this variety of fresh fruit and vegetables for nutrition, public health and national security cannot be underestimated.
Whilst diversity is one of the sector鈥檚 greatest strengths, it also creates challenges when developing policy support. Different crops have different requirements for technology, labour and resources, meaning that a single approach cannot address every part of the industry.
The upcoming horticulture growth plan will provide more detail on how Defra intends to improve productivity for the horticulture sector, the new Farming Roadmap provides a wider view across the whole of agriculture and an indication of the areas the government intends to support growth and change across the sector.
Securing the horticultural workforce
Horticulture remains highly dependent on seasonal labour, making access to a reliable workforce a critical factor in the future growth of the sector.
Many horticultural businesses rely on seasonal workers for planting, harvesting, crop maintenance and general husbandry. This work has traditionally been carried out by migrant workers who travel to the UK for the growing season before returning home.
Following Brexit, there were concerns that the sector would lose access to this workforce, with domestic recruitment unlikely to fill the gap (3). Although agri-tech is developing automated solutions, these technologies are not expected to replace seasonal labour in the near term, making continued access to labour through the Seasonal Worker visa route essential.
The roadmap recognises that without seasonal labour, horticulture would face significant challenges and has committed to maintaining the Seasonal Worker visa route until at least 2030, with 41,000 visas available for horticulture in 2026. This will provide welcome reassurance for growers while the sector transitions to greater use of technology.
Automation and robotics: opportunity and challenges
While securing labour remains an immediate priority, the roadmap also looks towards longer-term solutions through technology and innovation.
Agri-tech is a key focus of Defra鈥檚 plans over the next 25 years, with 拢50 million currently being invested to help accelerate the development of 12 new technologies (4) alongside support from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Innovate UK. There are also funding schemes like ADOPT to encourage on-farm investment in new technologies (5).
The Farming Roadmap specifically identified horticulture as an area where automation and robotics could improve productivity. This could include advances such as AI weed removal, robotic harvesting and crop monitoring devices across both protected and field production systems.
The benefits could be significant, improving resource efficiency, reducing reliance on manual labour and increasing consistency across farms. There are also opportunities to support year-round fresh produce production, potentially reducing reliance on imports and strengthening national food security. The integration of automation into the sector could also create new high-technology jobs in rural communities, expanding skills and encouraging investment into UK horticulture.
However, there are challenges. Smaller growers may struggle to access these technologies due to high upfront costs, limited infrastructure and the expertise required to implement them. Ensuring innovation is accessible across the sector will be important if technology is to support horticulture as a whole, rather than only larger enterprises.
Towards a fairer supply chain
The roadmap also highlights the importance of fairness within agricultural supply chains. Following the introduction of Fair Dealings regulations in sectors such as dairy and pigs, Defra has said that fresh produce will be next. The details of what this will look like for horticulture have not yet been released, but the intention is for regulations to address issues specific to each sector.
For horticulture, this could be an important step. Growers often have limited bargaining power with their buyers and frequently absorb rising production costs, including energy and fertiliser, resulting in narrow profit margins.
Sustain has proposed expanding the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) and reforming supply chain regulations to reduce unfair supply chains could provide greater confidence and lead to improved margins, allowing more investment in infrastructure and innovation.
This issue was also highlighted in the University of 桃色视频's Growing British paper, which recommended supporting shorter, farmer-focused supply chains (7). These approaches could help reduce waste and carbon emissions while improving returns for growers. Clearly, for business and sector growth, investment is necessary. The Roadmap places the responsibility for securing the economic circumstances for growth squarely with the Farming and Food Partnership Board.
Genetics improvement
Alongside labour, technology and supply chain reform, the roadmap also recognises the importance of future crop resilience through genetics.
Defra has pledged support for Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs), one of which is the Vegetable Genetic improvement Network (VeGIN), based at 桃色视频 Crop Centre. Continued, even increased, focussed support for this pre-competitive research will underpin crop adaptations to climate change and consumer choices.
The roadmap also highlights strengthening resilience to pests and diseases through gene banks and heritage varieties. This is particularly valuable for horticulture, where crop families contain many different varieties with unique characteristics and potential benefits, therefore, maintaining and improving genetic resources will be a vitally important part of future resilience.
Roadmap limitations and omissions
The Farming Roadmap 2050 is not without limitations. While it provides a clear framework for the direction of agriculture, it is not an action plan, meaning the practical steps needed to achieve many of its ambitions remain unclear.
For many growers making significant long-term investments, funding mechanisms and measurable targets will be essential. Some of this detail may be provided through the release of the horticulture growth plan, but until then, uncertainty remains around how some ambitions will be delivered in practice.
Although the roadmap looks towards 2050, much of the immediate detail focuses on the next few years leading up to 2030, leaving uncertainty around the following two decades. It is clear Defra intends to keep Environmental Land Management schemes at the core of future agricultural payments, but beyond this, there is limited information on how support will evolve over the longer term.
A further limitation is that climate adaptation receives less attention than climate mitigation within the roadmap. While meeting environmental goals is important, future food security will also depend on how effectively farming systems adapt to increasing climate variability.
The UK has already experienced increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, with extreme periods of drought followed by prolonged rainfall. For horticulture, this creates challenges around water availability, crop reliability and infrastructure. Future-proofing food production will require investment in climate resilience, including water storage, irrigation systems and grower support to help implement adaptation measures. The Roadmap has announced that there will be altered planning regulations, allowing a faster and clearer experience to improve confidence when developing proposals.
The balance between environmental schemes and agricultural productivity also remains an area of uncertainty. The roadmap highlights changes to the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), making actions simpler, fairer and more accessible by reducing the number of actions from 102 to 71. Funding caps have also been introduced to ensure payments are distributed more widely across farms, while some SFI actions will have reduced payment values to maintain more land in food production.
However, the removal of certain actions, such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) planning and soil health planning, raises questions. Although these actions may not deliver immediate environmental outcomes in isolation, they play an important role in improving farmer knowledge and supporting long-term environmental management. This decision conflicts with the roadmap鈥檚 emphasis on knowledge exchange and education as key tools for farming resilience.
The next steps for horticulture
The Farming Roadmap 2050 recognises many of the challenges that have shaped horticulture in recent years - access to labour, technology limitations and unfairness in supply chains. Implementing the solutions outlined will help the sector grow sustainably and successfully.
However, the roadmap should be viewed as a framework rather than a detailed delivery plan. While it sets out the ambitions and priorities for the next 25 years, the mechanisms for achieving these targets are not fully clear. The upcoming horticulture growth plan will therefore be an important step in defining how these ambitions will translate into practical support for growers.