British farmers have had to cut back on food production in order to stay in business and have been forced to take up greener alternatives, according to the National Farmers Union (NFU).

In an interview with the Financial Times, NFU president Tom Bradshaw said some farmers are rewilding or growing crops for biofuels to keep their businesses going amid large cuts to food subsidies as the government winds down the former EU payment scheme.

It comes as yields on some crops, including oilseed rape, winter barley and English wheat have fallen significantly due to consecutive poor harvests following record rainfall this year.

Ahead of the Budget on 30 October, Bradshaw has called on the government to roll over the £258m underspend of the environment department to aid farmers with the agricultural transition.

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For the worst-impacted farmers, he has urged ministers to issue grants from a planned flood recovery fund.

He told the Financial Times: “If [the government] don’t get that support package right, if they don’t enable the investment, if they don’t get the planning system working, then ultimately [farmers] will have no choice: they will de-risk their businesses, and we will have lots of birds and bees.”

Bradshaw said that if the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) was to publish an impact assessment of the Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMS), which provides farmers with payments for improving biodiversity and reducing emissions, “it would really help members because then they can decide if they want to be part of the journey or not”.

He added: “Right now they are taking the money because they have to.”

Bradshaw also expressed concerns over the new government’s “failure” to carry out the flood recovery scheme’s second round of grants and over the clearness of whether unspent funds from the last three budgets would be carried forward.

A Defra spokesperson said: “This government will restore stability and confidence in the sector, introducing a new deal for farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen food security.

“That starts with accelerating the building of flood defences through our new Flood Resilience Taskforce to protect farms and their crops.”