The government has confirmed a £358 million underspend of the agriculture budget, with the NFU calling it a 'kick in the teeth' for farmers.
Defra has released findings from the Farming and Countryside Programme (FCP) annual report which shows an underspend of the budget over the past three years.
This includes £130 million in 2023-2024, £103 million in 2022-2023 and £125 million in 2021-2022.
The NFU said Defra's 'honest admission of failure' came at a time as farmers continued to face uncertainty and loss of income during the agricultural transition.
Releasing the findings, Daniel Zeichner, Defra's new farming minister, blamed the previous Conservative governments for "breaking their promises to farmers".
“They sold them out in dodgy trade deals and then failed to pay them the funds they were promised," he said.
“The Labour government will restore confidence and stability to farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen our food security.”
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said the underspend was due to new and incomplete schemes replacing the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).
He said: "We have flagged problems with the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes from day one... there is a still big gap in spending as the money saved from the continued BPS reductions has sat gathering dust."
For years, the union, as well as other industry bodies, have pressed the need for the new schemes to be in place before reductions in BPS began.
The risk this cumulative lost income poses to the viability of farming businesses is also well known.
Recent research showed that, on average, upland businesses had lost 37% of their support payments under the 2023 scheme options.
Mr Bradshaw said: “Twelve months ago, when there were further issues with the rollout of the new schemes, we were a lone voice calling for reductions in BPS to be paused.
"It wasn’t, and yet farmers and growers continued to face record inflation levels and devastating weather events. We’re now seeing the consequences as confidence in the sector has collapsed."
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) called on the government to commit to an annual £3.8 billion farming budget in next month's autumn statement.
“The UK government is building a new way of working with farmers to deliver good outcomes for food and for the environment, and we will need our full budget to make it work," said CLA President Victoria Vyvyan.
“The government's ambitions are the right ones, but they cannot be delivered on a shoestring."
