National farm baselining: Why it matters
22 January 2026Why England needs a national environmental baseline and the path to making it a reality.
England’s farmland is one of the nation’s most valuable assets, supporting food production, rural prosperity, national resilience, environmental sustainability, and nature recovery. Until now, the country has been missing a single, trusted, national reference point to understand the true environmental condition of its agricultural land. Without this, the UK cannot accurately measure progress, confidently target investment, or coordinate the actions needed to meet its climate and nature goals.
That is why IGD has developed The value case for national environmental baselining of England’s farmland, the first analysis of its kind. This work brings together evidence, expert insights, and cross-sector perspectives to demonstrate the national, economic, and environmental value that a coordinated approach to baselining can unlock. It lays the foundation for a long term, shared action plan and marks a major step toward transforming how farmland is measured, managed, and valued.
Our work has been designed to complement and strengthen other progressive initiatives in the agriculture sector, including the recent recommendations from the Farming Profitability Review and latest government announcements from the Oxford Farming Conference. If you’d like the latest insights from the agriculture sector, please read our article UK farming insights from 2025 and looking ahead to 2026.
Why we created a national value case
To stop fragmentation and duplication across the system
Right now, different organisations from retailers, manufacturers, financial institutions, and government schemes and departments are all collecting environmental data from farms. But they use different methods, metrics, and tools, which creates inconsistency and increases the burden on farmers. Efforts are duplicated, data is siloed, and the system lacks a shared starting point.
The value case highlights that without national alignment, progress will continue to be slow, costly, and uneven. National baselining provides:
a consistent set of minimum standards
an agreed set of metrics and measurement approaches
a coherent data sharing framework
the opportunity to reduce duplicated effort and improve value for money
To unlock the economic and environmental value of England’s farmland
The UK food system produces 62% of the food we consume and contributes significantly to the UK’s economic and climate performance. Agriculture alone is responsible for around 39% of the food system’s territorial emissions, making it a critical area of focus for achieving national climate targets. Beyond just the environmental impact, our latest climate risk report showed by 2050, under a Business-as-Usual scenario, climate change could add £2.6 billion to UK food system costs, over 14% of annual commodity spend. Also, the new National Planning Policy Framework, derived from the IGD Viewpoint report, shows the importance of driving good growth in the agricultural sector, which could add up to could add £1.3bn in annual production value and support an additional 60,000 jobs.
By establishing a clear, comparable picture of farm-level environmental performance, potentially including emissions, carbon stocks, soil health, biodiversity, and water quality, the baseline enables:
smarter, evidence-based policymaking
targeted public and private investment
confidence for carbon and nature markets
improved productivity and profitability on farms
To accelerate progress toward net zero and nature goals
The UK must rapidly scale low carbon agricultural practices and mobilise billions of pounds of investment to close the nature finance gap and grow carbon removals markets. High integrity environmental data is essential to unlock this capital.
A national baseline provides the data investors, insurers, and policymakers need to support climate positive farming at scale, making England a global leader in agricultural sustainability.
What’s inside the value case
The report sets out:
The opportunity from England’s farmland
It outlines the multifunctional value farmland delivers from food production to carbon sequestration, and details how a national baseline would drive good economic growth, strengthen food security, accelerate the carbon and nature markets, and support national targets such as Net Zero, Good Food Cycle, Modern Industrial Strategy and the Environmental Improvement Plan.
The system failures holding the UK back
Exploring the key barriers and why a coordinated, national-wide approach is needed
How national baselining can accelerate progress
The report brings together evidence of current baselining activity across sectors, showing where progress has been made, where data gaps remain, and how the system can build on existing strengths.
The shared action plan for delivery
Building on the existing great work, we propose a 12-year strategy that lays out how England could build a baseline once and use it across the whole system to reduce the burden on farmers and deliver more value for money for industry and government.
Read the value case in full.
What comes next: Creating the UK’s first costed business case
With the value case now complete, the next phase is to develop the UK’s first costed business case for national baselining. The goal is to present a fully costed business case to government in 2026, making the national baseline a central part of the long‑term shared action plan. This phase will bring together the economic, technical and operational realities that underpin an effective national baseline. It will assess the benefits and market opportunities, understand where the key barriers lie, and develop a coherent approach to delivery and funding. This work will reveal which approach to delivering the baseline provides the strongest combination of value, impact and practicality.
This work is more than a technical exercise. It is a critical opportunity to reduce risk for farmers, improve supply chain reporting, unlock targeted incentives and investment, and strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of the UK food system.
Conclusion: Baselining as a catalyst for good growth, environmental improvement and national resilience
National environmental baselining is an essential foundation for the UK’s climate transition, food security, and economic resilience. This value case shows that by aligning behind a shared vision, with the public and private sectors working together, we can unlock meaningful benefits for farmers, industry, government, and the environment.
The next phase is about turning this vision into a costed, deliverable plan that sets the UK on the path to long term rural prosperity and agricultural sustainability.
For more information or if you can contribute to this ongoing work, please contact [email protected]