Making the transition work: the hidden labour of nature-recovery farming

Globally, agricultural policies addressing the biodiversity and climate crises are increasingly characterised by diversified funding landscapes that combine public and private models. Existing research has examined diverse agri-environment schemes and contractual arrangements but offers limited understanding of the work required to engage with multiple funding mechanisms and sustain participation for members of the farming and land management community. This paper addresses this gap by examining how diversified agri-environmental funding systems are made workable in practice. This paper contributes to the understanding of the international challenges of transforming environmental land management and farming by highlighting the work required for effective participation in this transition, providing one of the first integrated and in-depth analyses of England's post-Brexit agri-environmental funding landscape. Drawing on a systematic funding matrix, consultation reports, and 14 interviews with farmers and land managers, this study documents the scale and diversity of emerging agri-environmental funding arrangements. We show how the resulting governance complexity is experienced and managed in everyday decision-making by the farming and land management communities. The paper advances understanding of agricultural transition, arguing that funding systems are enacted through six emerging forms of work. Our analysis identifies six forms of often unrecognised and under-resourced work involved in navigating the contemporary funding landscape. This ‘hidden work’ has implications for equity, participation, and the sustainability of transitions with transferability to a range of global policy areas. By reframing the work of agri-environmental transition, this paper makes a substantive contribution to applied environmental management. The framework developed offers transferable insights for international policymakers and practitioners designing agri-environmental interventions in other contexts characterised by funding diversification and institutional complexity.