A farmer-led cooperative in North Lincolnshire has secured the necessary funding to launch trading opportunities for sustainability-focused farmers, thanks to the backing of Wilkin Chapman, the largest law firm in Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire.

Wilkin Chapman joins agricultural machinery supplier Peacock & Binnington as one of the inaugural sponsors of the Northern Lincolnshire Environmental Farmers Group (EFG), which aims to drive positive environmental change through natural capital trading.

The organisation aims to increase biodiversity in North Lincolnshire, improve water quality, achieve net carbon farming by 2040 and generate new trading opportunities for farmers.

The Northern Lincolnshire EFG is the 10th group of its kind to be established across the UK since 2020, with the EFG network now comprising 433 farmers, covering around 3% of England’s farmed area and a trading pipeline worth c. £10 million.

The Northern Lincolnshire group – which covers areas surrounding Grimsby, Scunthorpe, Immingham, Louth, Crowle and Epworth – has been set up by local farmers Andrew Jackson, from Pink Pig Farm, and William Sowerby, from Farming Forward. The group is now appealing for more members in the area.

Catherine Harris, head of the agriculture sector at Wilkin Chapman, said:

“When farmers work together, they can have a great deal of power. While there are groups that represent farming as a whole, the EFG is a rapidly growing voice for farmers who are particularly mindful of their sustainability, as well as their financial success.

“Farming plays a major role in the care of our ecosystem and I know environmental custodianship is very important to a great many farmers, so we hope that supporting the establishment and growth of this EFG will help farmers to work together to achieve this.”

The first Environmental Farmers Group was officially launched in May 2022, after a group of farmers came together in the Avon area to build on their local Farmer Clusters to strengthen their position to deliver environmental goods and services for fair reward.

It was convened by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), which founded the Farmer Cluster concept and whose scientific research is behind many of DEFRA’s ELM scheme agri-environment options. Against a backdrop of the transition away from the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), the group grew in numbers and expertise, eventually forming a cooperative two years later.

The EFG acts as a trusted navigator for farmers and landowners in industries that focus on natural assets such as soil, air, water, plants and animals (known as the ‘natural capital sector’). Its goal is to use scale and member cooperation to secure the best environmental results and financial returns for a wide range of natural capital goods and services.

Members of the EFG get access to trading opportunities in natural capital markets, guidance on how to trade and benefit from farmer buying power in natural capital markets.

William Sowerby, from Northern Lincolnshire Environmental Farmers Group, said:

“Northern Lincolnshire was the first EFG group to be established outside the South of England. There was some early demand to replicate the EFG model in the area and so a steering group was pulled together to drive the model.

“The group has been sitting regularly since July 2023 and we have over 40 farmers expressing an interest so far. With its proximity to the industrial Humber bank, we see some key potential opportunities for EFG farmers to support growth in the area through cleaner water projects, as well as biodiversity and carbon mitigation for new industrial developments.”