On the NT’s re-wilding of farmland

Dear Editor,

I have been informed that the tenant farming Hinton Ampner is retiring. As a result the Trust has decided to cease farming the land and instead re-wild the whole area.

This is absurd. We are hardly self-sufficient in cereals and, with the mayhem in Ukraine/Russia, are likely to be short of wheat across the world. I suspect this is a ploy to generate more money from DEFRA under the ELM scheme than they get in rent from the tenancy.

I am not against re-wilding per se, but I do feel re-wilding good, productive farming land reduces our capacity as a nation to feed ourselves. In our area of Hampshire some 800 acres of arable land is destined for re-wilding. Re-wilding good arable land only means we are more likely to rely on imported cereals and vegetable oils, including soya and palm oil.

I have little confidence the NT has a belief in farming its land, but quite the reverse and would like to see it return to bramble, bracken and scrubland: surely not the objectives of our founders.

Fred Deeks
Hampshire