Last week saw DEFRA announce the long awaited rules on Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) which are part of the so called “Greening Measures” which will be introduced as part of the new Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) which replaces the existing Single Payment Scheme.
The Greening Measures will be worth 30% of a farmer’s support payment and in addition to the EFAs farmers will be required to observe rules on crop diversification and the retention of permanent pasture(at a national level) but it is the EFA rules which are causing most concern. This is because within a month or so farmers will be staring this year’s harvest and will be hoping to replant next year’s crops almost immediately but without knowing the EFA rules, this will be difficult.
In simple terms the new rules will require arable farmers with over 15 hectares of crops to “set aside” 5% of their land in to EFAs. The big question has been what these EFAs will involve and last week it became clear there will be five options. These will include land lying fallow, buffer strips, ‘catch and cover crops’ used to manage soil fertility and quality and Nitrogen Fixing Crops such as legumes and hedgerows.
The first option to leave land fallow is obviously costly for farmers in terms of loss of income and the government are also concerned about the loss of production at a time when we have falling rates of self sufficiency of home grown food. However, this is a straightforward and relatively easily monitored prescription.
The ease of administering the new system and proving to Europe that we have systems in place to monitor claims and payments is a real concern to the Rural Payments Agency, being the body charged with delivering the BPS. They remember the disaster that engulfed them when the Single Payment Scheme was introduced in 2005 and they do not want to see anything like that happen again.
Therefore, the inclusion of hedgerows as an EFA will no doubt be of concern to the RPA because in order to monitor this they will effectively have to digitally map every hedgerow which will be an enormous task between now and 1st January 2015 which is the start of the new BPS.
As a result DEFRA have warned in there press release that, “ To ensure that the RPA can process all claims accurately, farmers taking the hedgerow option may be requested to submit claims earlier and may need to expect payments later. This is because hedgerows will need to be digitally recorded and verified by the RPA to meet EU requirements and avoid the risk of penalties for farmers or the taxpayer”.
So, although matters have been clarified I think it will take a little while before the implications of the new EFA options are fully understood although the clock is ticking and farmers will need to make a decision on which prescriptions they intend to employ to within the next few months if they are not to jeopardise 30% of their agricultural support payments next year.
The Greening Measures will be worth 30% of a farmer’s support payment and in addition to the EFAs farmers will be required to observe rules on crop diversification and the retention of permanent pasture(at a national level) but it is the EFA rules which are causing most concern. This is because within a month or so farmers will be staring this year’s harvest and will be hoping to replant next year’s crops almost immediately but without knowing the EFA rules, this will be difficult.
In simple terms the new rules will require arable farmers with over 15 hectares of crops to “set aside” 5% of their land in to EFAs. The big question has been what these EFAs will involve and last week it became clear there will be five options. These will include land lying fallow, buffer strips, ‘catch and cover crops’ used to manage soil fertility and quality and Nitrogen Fixing Crops such as legumes and hedgerows.
The first option to leave land fallow is obviously costly for farmers in terms of loss of income and the government are also concerned about the loss of production at a time when we have falling rates of self sufficiency of home grown food. However, this is a straightforward and relatively easily monitored prescription.
The ease of administering the new system and proving to Europe that we have systems in place to monitor claims and payments is a real concern to the Rural Payments Agency, being the body charged with delivering the BPS. They remember the disaster that engulfed them when the Single Payment Scheme was introduced in 2005 and they do not want to see anything like that happen again.
Therefore, the inclusion of hedgerows as an EFA will no doubt be of concern to the RPA because in order to monitor this they will effectively have to digitally map every hedgerow which will be an enormous task between now and 1st January 2015 which is the start of the new BPS.
As a result DEFRA have warned in there press release that, “ To ensure that the RPA can process all claims accurately, farmers taking the hedgerow option may be requested to submit claims earlier and may need to expect payments later. This is because hedgerows will need to be digitally recorded and verified by the RPA to meet EU requirements and avoid the risk of penalties for farmers or the taxpayer”.
So, although matters have been clarified I think it will take a little while before the implications of the new EFA options are fully understood although the clock is ticking and farmers will need to make a decision on which prescriptions they intend to employ to within the next few months if they are not to jeopardise 30% of their agricultural support payments next year.
James Stephen MRICS FAAV
Partner
Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor, Wells
T: 01749 683381
E: james.stephen@carterjonas.co.uk
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