Minister’s threat to farmers over environment scheme failures

FARMERS have been warned that compulsory set-aside could be reintroduced after the Government expressed dissatisfaction with the progress of an industry-led voluntary scheme for environmental land management..

Environment Minister Jim Paice yesterday published an open letter to the English farming industry signifying his displeasure at the lack of progress on the Campaign for the Farmed Environment (CFE) and threatened to restore compulsory regulation if more arable farmers do not join up.

The country’s farming organisations won a hard-fought battle to persuade the previous Labour Government to scrap compulsory set-aside and acted to establish the CFE scheme to deliver environmental targets around the country to reverse the decline in many native species in recent years.

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The voluntary approach sees farmers agreeing to leave areas of land fallow and sign up to Environmental Stewardship schemes in a bid to encourage wildlife to make farms their habitat.

Progress has proved unsatisfactory for the Government, however, Mr Paice pledging to look carefully for signs of improvement in the coming year.

Mr Paice said in his letter: “The CFE is the farming industry’s chance to demonstrate that this voluntary approach can work better than regulation and that they are best placed to decide on, and tackle, their local environmental priorities, without intervention.

“But if the farming community cannot step up and achieve these results voluntarily the Government will have to consider a compulsory approach.”

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Reaction from Britain’s farming industries was one of concern, Peter Kendall of the National Farmers Union stating that the “success of our industry’s campaign lies in our hands” and urging farmers to sign up and target options which will deliver the most for wildlife and the environment.

Country Land and Business Association president William Worsley said: “We need to show what we in the industry already know – that England’s farmers can be relied upon to conserve the natural environment so long as we are provided with the right opportunities, information and incentives. We don’t need a return to the bad old days of top-down regulation.

“It is vital, particularly as spring approaches, that everyone supports the campaign.”

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