Relief for farmers as food crops included in payments criteria

New European regulations mean farmers must set aside five per cent of their land as an Ecological Focus Area (EFA) and the Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has now revealed that growing nitrogen-fixing crops in these areas will help farmers meet the revised criteria for receiving European funding.

Eligible crops include legumes and hedgerows, which are welcome inclusions the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said, but environmentalists accused Mr Paterson of wasting an opportunity to deliver targeted measures to support wildlife.

Farmers are required to implement greening measures or they will lose up to 30 per cent of their Basic Payment Scheme payment, which is awarded from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy budget. Greening rules also cover crop diversification and measures to maintain permanent grassland. Announcing further details yesterday, Mr Paterson said: “We want farmers to be free to do what they do best: producing food and helping to grow the economy. I have said all along the EU’s CAP reform is disappointing, but we have worked hard to remove the worst aspects and to make these new rules as easy as possible and given flexibility on how they are implemented, as well as reducing the burden of regulations.

“We have allocated £3.5 billion to rural development schemes, which we believe is a much better way of improving the environment and growing the rural economy.”

Hedges are just one landscape feature which farmers maintain to qualify for existing subsidies ahead of the new EU policy being introduced in 2015.

Reacting to yesterday’s announcement, the NFU’s president Meurig Raymond called for more landscape features to be taken into account in the future.

“Members have been awaiting these critical announcements so they can plan for next year and while many will be disappointed that all landscape features won’t count from year one of the new CAP, there will be some relief that nitrogen fixing crops such as peas and beans will count.

“Today’s news means more choice for farmers, less land taken out of food production as well as achieving a clear positive benefit for the environment.”

Not everyone agreed. The RSPB said the greening measures were a “poor deal” and showed that of the £11bn to be spent on direct subsidies to farmers in England, very little will have any environmental benefit.

Martin Harper, the RSPB’s conservation director, said: “Today’s announcement is a wasted opportunity. When push came to shove the Government wasn’t prepared to stand by its commitment to incorporate wider benefits for society and the environment into support for farmers.

“The Government talks a good talk, but in this case they failed to join up their policies when they had the chance. Today’s decision misses the chance deliver their own ambitions around the Natural Environment White Paper and the England Biodiversity Strategy, which commits to being the first generation to pass on the natural environment in an enhanced state to the next.”