Farmers and food producers have welcomed changes to the government’s post-Brexit farm subsidy scheme, but say it may still be “too little too late” for a sector buffeted by soaring costs over the past year.
Defra yesterday announced plans to increase payments to farmers under its Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, which include initiatives such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship schemes that pay farmers for taking actions to benefit the environment and biodiversity.
At the Oxford Farming Conference, farming minister Mark Spencer announced more money for farmers and landowners through both the CS and SFI schemes, with the changes meaning they could receive up to an extra £1,000 per year for implementing more nature-friendly food production methods through the SFI alone.
The £1,000 equates to £20 per hectare, up to 50 hectares of land entered into the scheme, and payments will be backdated to when the scheme first opened in June 2022. According to Defra, this represents a potential payment increase of as much as 50% for a 50-hectare farm.
The government said the payments would help drive uptake in the scheme among all farmers and reduce the challenges of rising input costs and other pressures.
But while some of “these latest changes are welcome,” said NFU VP David Exwood, they also risked “being too little too late, especially given the current economic challenges we are experiencing and the rapid erosion of direct payments”, which were part of the common agriculture policy-linked EU subsidy scheme now being phased out.
He explained farmers needed “vital clarity” on the schemes and it was “hugely frustrating” that there were still only “three standards available for the SFI”.
“It’s a sad reflection of the scheme’s progress and development that NFU members know more about what they will lose in direct payments than what they will gain from taking part in these new schemes,” he said.
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The new policy has also been criticised by the Soil Association, whose head of farming policy Gareth Morgan said there needed to be more “game-changing action”.
“Today’s payment hike recognises the poor uptake so far of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme, but farmers still await the bold vision and clarity they need to invest with confidence in a transition to nature-friendly farming systems such as organic,” Morgan said.
In addition to changes to SFI, farmers with a Countryside Stewardship agreement will see an average increase of 10% to their revenue payment rates – covering ongoing activity such as habitat management.
“As custodians of more than 70% of our countryside, the nation is relying on its farmers to protect our landscapes as well as produce the high-quality food we are known for, and we are increasing payment rates to ensure farmers are not out of pocket for doing the right thing by the environment,” said Spencer.
It comes as The Guardian this week reported only 224 farmers were paid under the SFI scheme last year.
Defra told The Grocer payments for the incentive are made on a quarterly basis with applications opening in June 2022, meaning the first payments were made at the end of the year.
A Defra spokeswoman said: “The Sustainable Farming Incentive is simple to apply for, with around 4,450 applications started and a much higher rate of applications than in the first few months of other popular farming schemes.”
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