Government urged to act as upland farming pressures highlighted

Defra has recently announced a £358 million underspend in the agricultural budget over the last three years which has left farmers and growers with loss of income, as a result of changes to the government’s environmental schemes from Basic Payment Scheme to Environmental Land Management schemes.

Many farmers have agreements which come to an end in December and at present there is no opportunity for them to start applying for a new agreement; farmers can only apply for a new scheme when the old one expires.

After the meeting NFU Deputy President David Exwood said: “Our upland farmers play an important role producing home grown food while also being stewards of some of the country’s most cherished landscapes, they urgently need financial support to survive.

“While NFU campaigning has led to positive increases in the number of options available for upland farmers under Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), there still remains challenges about how hill farming businesses will be profitable through this transition period and what is Defra’s long term vision for Lake District farmers.”

The NFU is calling on a mechanism to allow farmers with existing environmental schemes, such as Higher Level Schemes (HLS) or Higher Tier Countryside agreements, to transfer over into these new schemes so they can work better for their farm.

The talks came as a report compiled by the Regional Moorland Groups concluded people living in the English uplands felt politicians were “in hock to a conservation industry that doesn’t care how its work affects local communities”.

The report states 97 per cent of those surveyed in the People’s Plan for the Uplands, who live in areas such as the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and te Forest of Bowland, answered ‘no’ to the question: “Do politicians do enough to look after rural communities?”.

The report, which is intended to provide recommendations for policy-makers regarding Britain’s heather moorlands and the communities that depend on them, concluded people in the uplands feel politicians don’t utilise local knowledge or expertise to help protect heather moorland.

Meanwhile, 75 per cent said rewilding is “not a good thing” for the region’s heather moorland and when asked what they valued most about the upland areas, more than 60 per cent said the region’s biodiversity.

“What this report shows is the deep sense of anxiety that people across the uplands feel for their way of life and the nature around them,” said Richard Bailey, coordinator of the Peak District Moorland Group.

“People fundamentally want a say in how the nature around them is managed. However, they feel that politicians are entirely in hock to a conservation industry who either don’t realise or don’t care how their work affects local communities,” he added.

The People’s Plan for the Uplands spotlights opinions from individuals living in the region.

Participants also think that the government’s current approach to conservation is having a negative impact on the region’s biodiversity, including rare species of ground nesting birds such as curlew and lapwing.

“I think it is of concern to note that areas managed by Natural England and the RSPB have experienced a far greater decline in numbers of ground nesting birds than moors managed for shooting,” said David from near Halifax.