There has been very substantial ministerial engagement with the Chinese government in recent months, both here and in China.

During the course of those meetings, developments in the steel market were discussed on numerous occasions,including in discussions between the Prime Minister, Chancellor and President Xi during the State Visit. It was also raised by the Business Secretary.

Our relationship with China includes regular discussions of the market reforms needed to underpin growth in both our countries. This Chinese State Visit is delivering over £30bn of trade and investment deals.

Vocational skills offers can be delivered under a number of Rural Development Programme schemes. These are either national or have offers tailored to the needs of the local area. Defra publicises its schemes in a variety of ways including through the GOV.UK website. Local organisations such as Local Enterprise Partnerships also promote relevant local offers to their areas.

We are putting in place an ambitious 25-year plan to promote and grow our world-leading food and farming industry, encouraging enterprise and boosting productivity right across the food chain.

In addition, Defra is currently investing £4.2 million over three years in the Sustainable Intensification research Platform (SIP). This is designed to investigate integrated approaches for farmers to produce more food whilst simultaneously protecting and enhancing biodiversity, and the natural environment in general. The SIP will also develop tools to enable decision-makers to balance our need to produce more British food with the need to protect our natural resources.

The Government is currently developing the framework that will guide the development of a 25-year environment plan for England, which will include biodiversity. Biodiversity policy is a devolved issue, but we will maintain a constructive dialogue with the Devolved Administrations throughout the development of the plan, through the Four Countries Biodiversity Group.

The Government will, of course, ensure that these two long-term approaches complement each other.

This Government is committed to working with industry to develop a long-term plan to grow our food and farming industry. The plan will set out how British food and farming can become a world leader: innovative, competitive, profitable and resilient. Any future funding to deliver the plan will, as with all Government expenditure, be considered as part of the next Spending Review. It will build on the extensive support across Government for innovation and research, skills and apprenticeships, and export promotion.

Since December 2013 over 2 million people have been displaced by the conflict in South Sudan with the majority now residing in refugee camps and reliant on humanitarian aid. While it is too early for assessments for crop production in 2015, widespread disruption to agriculture is predicted to continue across the country and internally displaced people will continue to be reliant on aid, particularly during the dry season.

Under the Humanitarian Response Plan, the United Nations has appealed for USD 1.7 billion for 2015. The UK is one of the top three donors to this plan.

Supply chains vary considerably and there is no ‘one size fits all’ for a sustainable supply chain. There are good examples of both short and longer, more complicated supply chains. Assurance measures and traceability of produce are key to a sustainable food chain.

The Government has made it clear that following the vulnerabilities highlighted by the horsemeat fraud incident all food businesses need to review their own systems and test their products to demonstrate to consumers that they are in control of their supply chains. It is in the interest of the industry, as well as their legal obligation, to ensure the authenticity and safety of the products that they supply to their customers.

This Government is committed to helping UK food producers thrive and expand. We are working with the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and others to support a competitive UK farming industry, including through our £160 million investment in applied research under the agri-tech strategy, as well as the new Rural Development Programme for England, which includes £141 million dedicated to improving agricultural productivity.

The Government understands the concerns of British farmers over the current pressures on milk prices caused by the volatility of the global market. We want a competitive and resilient dairy industry that can take advantage of opportunities.

We will continue to work closely with the dairy industry as a whole to manage price volatility. At last week’s farming resilience summit George Eustice discussed ways of offering support to address the problems of severe market volatility with the NFU, high street banks, and farming industry experts.

It is important to remember that the long-term prospects are bright with exports at record levels. We are helping the dairy industry to take advantage of opportunities such as opening new export markets. The £141 million Countryside Productivity Scheme will include measures to help dairy farmers. We are pushing for better country of origin labelling for British dairy products.

Milk commodity price increases during 2013 stimulated milk production in the UK (also in the EU and across the world). UK milk production for January to November 2014 was 9% up on the previous year and 7% higher than the average seen over the past 10 years. Liquid milk is expensive to transport and has a short lifespan in its raw state. UK imports are at very low levels: around 1% of total UK production. In 2013, the UK imported 132 million litres of raw milk, predominantly intra-trade between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Domestic production of liquid milk in the same period was 13.2 billion litres.