COUNTRYSIDE campaigners are urging farmers to become more diverse to secure the future of the industry.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) says Brexit offers farmers the chance to do just that - which they say will not only boost business but also help the environment.

The CPRE's New Model farming paper argues that a more diverse sector - in demographics, farm size and production – would forge a more resilient future that offers rewards beyond food: beautiful landscapes, clean water, abundant wildlife, better flood management and improved carbon storage. 

It also argues that a post-Brexit settlement along these lines would make clearer the public benefits of huge public investment in farming.

The government has confirmed that EU funding for farmers, as well as scientists and other projects, will be replaced by the Treasury in the period immediately after Brexit.

Chancellor Philip Hammond also guaranteed that agricultural funding now provided by the EU will also continue until 2020.

Conservative MEP for the south west and Gibraltar Julie Girling welcomed the news.

She said: "There will be relief that Theresa May's Government is taking this step so promptly. It provides continuity and stability and is the right thing to do.

"However, it gives us no assurances about the future shape of funding, particularly for the rural economy. It would be helpful to clarify that the government will replace both the EU proportion of rural development money and the UK government match funding."

The CPRE paper suggests that government should attempt to reverse narrow trends of industrialisation and short-term efficiency. 

Damage to soil is estimated to cost £1.2 billion a year, while populations of farmland birds in England have more than halved in the past 40 years.

To address this decline in diversity across the sector, CPRE argues that government should address the bias in policy towards larger farms through the tapering of public funding to benefit smaller farmers. It is currently thought that around 80 per cent of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payment goes to the 20 per cent largest businesses.

With 34,000 fewer farms in the UK than there were a decade ago, CPRE also suggests that more land should be made available to new groups of farmers and communities.

Graeme Willis, food and farming campaigner at the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), said: "The Government has a great opportunity post-Brexit to determine what farming and the English countryside will look like. Do we really want to continue the pattern of ever larger agri-business, less connected to communities and out of kilter with nature?

"To forge a more resilient future, the Government should encourage a mix of farms that produce different foods for local people and varied, thriving landscapes. The obvious place to start is by redirecting funding to help smaller, more innovative and mixed farms, and by making land available for new farmers to enter the market."