On Saturday the Guardia is reporting that UK landowners are asking whoever should come to power after Liz Truss in Britain to eliminate her plans to ban solar farms on farmland.

Farmers are noting that allowing them to place solar panels on their land can help them to create a more steady income stream during years of poor crop production, as well as let them supply surrounding areas with cheap electricity.

Before her ouster, Truss had indicated her administration would ban the placeent of solar panels on agricultural land, by reclassifying even less productive land as, “best and most valuable” citing the need for food security in the nation. Once solar is installed on farmland, that land is essentially rendered permanently fallow, and can no longer be used to grow food, without massive expense to remove the solar installation.

Farmers were “dismayed and surprised” at the decision, according to the farming news website FarmingUK. Kent farmer Harry Teacher said to the Guardian, “For us it is a source of constant income. We make unequivocally more from our solar panels than from farming.”

The energy crisis has hit the British agriculture industry hard, with energy contracts so far increasing by as much as 400% according to a report in Farmer’s Weekly magazine. According to Insider magazine, one farm reportedly received a $17 million annual bill for the gas to heat its greenhouses.

In September Liz Truss had announced a six-month package of support which would help businesses, including farms and rural enterprises, pay for gas and electricity. However farming unions were critical of the plan, saying it would not be a long term solution to what may be a more permanent hike in energy prices following the geopolitical situation with Russia, which shows no signs of abating.

Farmer’s Weekly noted that the agricultural sector wants the government to help it invest in renewable energy, which would both lower each farm’s electricity bills, and help it develop a source of revenue which would be most profitable when energy costs made farming most expensive.