BEHIND THE HEADLINES
HOW IS FARMING CHANGING?
British farming faces its largest upheaval since the end of the Second World War. Having left the European Union, the UK is using the Agriculture Act 2020 to replace EU subsidies with new schemes to underpin the industry. What will these changes mean to farming, nature and the wider countryside? Mark Rowe reports on the latest updates
WHAT ARE THE KEY CHANGES?
Brexit was promoted as an opportunity to reset the UK’s approach to land management and deliver benefits for the environment while promoting a sustainable and productive farming sector. George Eustice, the farming minister, has described the new regime as “the biggest changes to farming and land management in 50 years”.
The key difference is that the UK is disentangling itself from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which subsidised farmers, for the most part based on food production and size of land holdings.
CAP accounted for around 55% of UK farm incomes and, in 2019, provided £4.7bn to farmers. CAP payments began to be reduced in 2021 and will disappear entirely by 2028
In its place are new subsidies under the umbrella term of Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS), driven by the mantra “public money for public goods”. The Agriculture Act 2020 introduced a legal requirement for ministers to consider the need to encourage the production of food in England in an environmentally sustainable way. This places a greater emphasis on farming methods that are nature-friendly with the aim of reversing decades of shocking declines in bird and insect populations. State payments will incentivise farmers to farm in ways that secure better air and water quality, higher standards of welfare for animals and implement measures to curb flooding.
Defra has set out specific targets: halt the decline in species by 2030; bring up to 60% of England’s agricultural soil under sustainable management by 2030; and restore up to 300,000 hectares of wildlife habitat by 2042.
41%
of UK species studied have declined since the 1970s
26%
of the UK’s mammals are at very real risk of becoming extinct
22%
of seabird species studied have declined in the past five decades
ELMS
ELMS comprises three funding streams: Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI); Landscape Recovery (LR); and Local Nature Recovery (LNR) schemes. Pilot projects have been launched in all three schemes. Defra wants at least 70% of farmers, covering at least 70% of farmland, to take part in SFI, and “significant numbers” to participate in LNR schemes.
1 Landscape Recovery will support long-term changes to land use, such as large-scale tree planting and peatland restoration projects (which would involve either massive reductions to, or complete cessation of, farming on the affected land). It will be open to projects for land areas of between 500 and 5,000 hectares and will pay farmers to rewild their land. A national pilot of up to 15 projects will begin in 2022 – starting with a two-year development phase – and the programme will be scaled up from 2024.
2 Sustainable Farming Incentive will pay farmers for taking actions above the minimum legal requirements to promote wildlife diversity, use water e ciently, enhance hedgerows and manage croplands and grasslands, while continuing to use their land for production. A pilot scheme was launched in October 2021 with 1,000 participants. This year, funding is being expanded to focus on soil quality and animal health and welfare. Each following year, additional standards will be added, such as improving hedgerows and combining trees or shrubs with crop and livestock farming.
3 Local Nature Recovery schemes will pay for actions that support natural recovery in local areas, such as creating, managing and restoring natural habitats, peat or wetland areas and hedgerows. It will encourage coordination between di erent farmers. A limited roll-out of the scheme will begin in 2023.
WALES AND SCOTLAND
In December 2020, the Welsh government published the Agriculture (Wales) White Paper. As in England, the concept of public money for public goods is central to the new “Sustainable Land Management policy framework”. Initially, the Welsh government had planned to end direct payments and begin phasing in a new funding regime from 2021. However, the new Sustainable Farming Scheme is not now expected to open until January 2025. The Scottish government plans to keep direct payments to farmers in place until 2026, although by 2025 around 50% of these payments will be conditional on delivering environmental benefits, and the remaining 50% will continue to be based on the area of land farmed. Unlike England, the Scottish government has set out explicitly to maintain food production and keep farmers on the land. In 2021, it established the Agricultural Reform Implementation Board – made up of farmers, crofters and conservationists – to advise on policy.
WHAT DO FARMERS AND WILDLIFE ORGANISATIONS MAKE OF THE CHANGES?
Most environmentalists had little love for CAP and support the notion of paying farmers to provide wildlife and animal health improvements. However, many farmers are concerned that food production in itself has not been specifically included in the list of purposes for which funding could be provided. The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has warned of “blind optimism” over the schemes’ introduction, and says all the schemes have insufficient detail.
Since the 1950s, the number of hedgehogs has declined by 95%, turtle doves have crashed by 98% and the common toad population has fallen by 68%
TOM BRADSHAW
NFU vice president
“Food production and environmental delivery go hand in glove; it’s not a question of ‘either-or’. ELMS is more of an environmental policy than it is a sustainable food policy. It could create a lovely green island where we import more of our food and simply shift our carbon footprint elsewhere. Where does the food come from in this policy? Food production should be running through its heart but it seems to be a bolt-on, a nice-to-have. Most farmers want to be part of ELMS but the budget needs to be increased. Members who feel potentially vulnerable could turn to other farming methods – potentially to the detriment of the environment.
“Only by ensuring these schemes incentivise sustainable food production, allow every farm business to be involved and pay farmers fairly for the costs they incur, will they attract the participation the Government envisages.”
ARLIN RICKARD
Chief policy advisor, The Rivers Trust
“We need to restore rivers and undo the damage done to them by farming. If the schemes work, all the problems we face with rivers – loss of biodiversity, pollution, flood risks – can be met. Improved water quality will reduce water treatment costs and boost the shellfish industry. If ELMS could be used to support the establishment of continuous 10–20m-wide riparian bu ers, we could go a long way to addressing water quality, biodiversity and carbon targets – by eectively creating a national nature recovery network along all the rivers in England, and ideally in Wales and Scotland. But how the three components of ELMS join together at a water catchment level is not clear. We don’t yet have an environmental regulatory baseline with enforcement in place. “Our concern is that farmers will drop out altogether [from the schemes] and farming will intensify. What’s on o er at the moment doesn’t look like it’s worthwhile for many of them to engage with ELMS. We need to make sure the economic case is overwhelming.”
BARNABY COUPE
Land use policy manager, Wildlife Trusts
“Leaving CAP has o ered a huge opportunity to reform farming so that it works with nature rather than against it. But we fear the original vision is being eroded by the sluggish pace of change. Everyone needs more detail so that farmers can plan their businesses. The opportunity is there to make fantastic changes, such as for hazel dormice, corridors for beavers, restoring wetlands in the north east. If it goes well, we will see positive change quickly – integrated pest management would see a drop-o in pesticide use.
“A rejuvenated landscape could see the return of species we have lost, such as the red-backed shrike. But farmers are already ploughing up wildflower meadows because they aren’t convinced the new payments will make it worth their while. Of course they’re going to look for short-term security.”
ALICE GROOM
Senior policy officer – land use, RSPB
“We were calling for a long time for a new system based on public money for public goods. It’s good that SFIs are to be widely accessible but our concern is that the ambition has been set very low. For example, paying farmers to manage soil, which is what they are already doing. The LR schemes are exciting but need to be connected. If it’s done well, if winter birdseed mixes are planted, hedgerows grow out, then we will see changes very quickly, with more corn buntings, skylarks and yellowhammers. If wetlands are managed better, then lapwing numbers will increase. Even some of the rarer birds, such as turtle doves, will start to recover. But Defra has to explain why this matters, why it benefits farmers long term, otherwise many will disengage and intensify.”