As policy on agricultural support is a fully devolved matter, each region of the UK may decide on how best to meet the objectives, needs and priorities of their region as they see fit. England was first to act and has the most developed transitional pathway. They decided that the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) will end in 2027, after several years of a delinkage payment, with the last BPS claim made in 2023. Environmental Land Management will replace BPS, focusing on agri-environment actions and ‘public money for public goods’. Each region’s agricultural policy framework is now starting to emerge although much is still subject to consultation.
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WALES – SUSTAINABLE FARMING SCHEME AND SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT |
On 26th September 2022 an Agriculture Bill for Wales was introduced to the Senedd, the purpose of which is to set out the framework for future farm support in Wales. This will take the form of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and its sub scheme the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS).
Sustainable Land Management (SLM)
The key pillars of the SLM are to support productivity, the environment and stability. “Productivity” payments will be for investment in technology, knowledge/skills and equipment. “Environment” payments will be delivered through both the Sustainable Farming Scheme’s entry-level and advanced requirements which will aim to enhance biodiversity, carbon sequestration, soils, air and water. The concept of stability represents a steady, reliable payment for all active farmers to support food production in the face of market volatility. The idea is that these tenets combine to support each aim and through this, provide greater support for Welsh farming. Whilst producing food in a sustainable manner, mitigating climate change and enhancing ecosystems of the countryside, it also aims to promote public access and engagement with cultural resources.
Whilst there is little detail on how these specific aims are to be achieved the key takeaways are that the policy will try to keep farmers on the land, “ensuring land continues to be managed by those who know it best”. The delivery of environmental goals is seen as a land sharing approach between farmers in collaboration. There will, however, still be an emphasis on food production and maintaining production standards. A consultation is set to close on 31 October 2022.
Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS)
The closest to a BPS replacement, the SFS will pay for actions that the Welsh Government thinks will deliver benefits to both the individual farm, the environment, animal health and welfare and wider society. The scheme will be supported through a new advisory service the ‘Farming Connect’ programme, and the encouragement of the adoption of basic benchmarking using simple Key Performance Indicators (KPI). This will take the form of an annual self-assessment against minimum sector KPIs.
Farms will be encouraged to diversify to develop existing produce, meet niche markets and improve business resilience. This may involve new horticulture enterprises, innovation projects that trial new sustainability technologies and techniques and support to help farmers work collaboratively to sell directly to consumers.
There will be three distinct layers, each with different levels of funding and requirements, which are higher the more one chooses to do.
The first involves a Universal layer of actions which all involved farmers must undertake. From that point there are two further optional and collaborative layers which consist of more complicated, focused actions or actions which involve collective work with other farmers.
Universal Actions
Mandatory actions will provide a baseline payment for participation, although how this figure is calculated is yet to be established. There will be capital items available.
- Complete an annual KPI self-assessment
- Set up dedicated secure stores for deadstock
- Operate pest control programmes
- Report the average amount of antibiotics used on the farm
- Manage peatland appropriately
- Create habitat features on land if 10% of the farm doesn’t currently have these. This can include trees, hedges and shelter belts
- Restore and manage wildlife ponds or create shallow temporary ponds
Optional Actions
A Farmer may choose which additional actions they undertake in this layer with further payment for the delivery of specific targets depending on what is suitable for the land or landscape feature in question. These will be more complex than the universal actions or tailored to specific areas of a holding.
- Establish a mixed sward of grasses, legumes and herbs or native wildflowers
- Capital support for rotational and mob grazing infrastructure
- Decarbonise machinery use and farming practices
- Use minimum-tillage or no-tillage methods to cultivate crops
Collaborative Actions
These collaborative projects of at least two farmers include works ranging from creating interconnected habitats across landscapes to developing co-operatives, unified branding and promotion and securing group investment.
- Improve water quality in a catchment
- Establish producer organisations or co-operatives
Other actions
Other actions include the banning of bare fields over the winter. In winter, all uncropped land must have multi-species cover crops, secure feed stores and compulsory wash stations will improve biosecurity, and the recording and reporting of pesticide use. Whilst these proposals aim to be applied across the board there may be exemptions based on a farm’s topography.
There may be payments to encourage slurry store covers, mob grazing, drying poultry manure and growing feed crops. There may be payments to isolate all incoming animals for at least six days and for having 3-metre-wide fences and hedge boundaries to prevent contact between neighbouring stock.
National Minimum Standards
These minimum standards will be a legal requirement for all farms with no payment provided. There will be advice and guidance available with sanctions and penalties for non-compliance.
Final decisions on the scheme including the actual funding and payment rates will not be presented until 2023.
Transition support
As the BPS and Glastir payments are phased out the Welsh government will support businesses in the transition phase whilst the SLM and SFS are established. There will be a ‘stability payment’ from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2029 although the exact details are yet to be formalised. This implies that BPS will continue in a relatively similar form until 2024.
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SCOTLAND |
The Agriculture (Retained EU Law and Data) (Scotland) Act 2020 provided powers to the Scottish Government to carry forward, amend or eventually replace the current subsidy system. The new Scottish Agriculture Bill will be introduced in 2023 providing a replacement for the Common Agricultural Policy, with at least half of all funding for this to be in place by 2025.
Whilst Scottish policy is currently the least developed out of all the regions, the indicators are that direct payments will continue in some form, whilst being heavily contingent on environmental outcomes, perhaps to a greater extent than other regions.
Sustainable Farming
The Scottish Government intend to implement a Sustainable Farming (SF) system. The stated aims of this include a focus on:
- greenhouse gas emissions
- biodiversity audits
- soil testing
- nutrient and forage plans and
- animal health and welfare plans
Conditionality
Food production will be supported via direct payments, but it will be on the condition that recipients of support will deliver targeted outcomes for biodiversity gain and low emissions production supporting climate change mitigation for businesses who wish to receive agricultural support payments.
Preparing for Sustainable Farming
Before the scheme is rolled out farmers will be helped in their preparations. There will be incentives to help understand a holding’s carbon emissions and sequestration, identify how emissions lower these and how to increase efficiencies. In October 2021, £51m in funding was announced covering the next three years. From spring 2022 certain grants were available for Carbon Auditing and Soil Sampling to improve Nutrient Management Planning.
These are available to those farmers who:
- are registered for funding with SGRPID.
- have a Rural Payments and Services (RPS) username and password.
Claims may only be made online.
Carbon Audits
A Carbon Audit will establish the carbon footprint of a business. It will identify amounts of greenhouse gas emissions on a farm and where these are predominately coming from. It will also identify “simple” changes to improve efficiency. These recommendations will aim to improve productivity, increase the use of renewable energy, reduce the demand on fossil fuels, make fertiliser use more efficient and increase the area of carbon sinks.
Those who apply will receive a standard cost payment of £500.
- The Carbon Audit must utilise a recommended tool such as the Agricultural Resource Efficiency Calculator (AgRE Calc ©) and align to PAS 2050 standard.
- Actions taken to reduce emissions must be recommended by a Farm Business Adviser Accreditation Scheme for Scotland (FBAASS) adviser who will have reviewed the Carbon Audit.
Soil Sampling to improve Nutrient Management Planning (NMP)
If the land is classed as Region 1 for BPS purposes, the farmer will be able to claim for the cost of their soil sampling up to the calculated maximum value. In addition, the first time they claim for this they will be paid a standard cost payment.
Payments will total:
- £30 per ha with a maximum allocation set at £300.
- An additional payment of £4.00 per tested sample for gathering the soil samples.
- One off standard cost payment of £250 the first time this is done.
The purpose of this testing is to improve nutrient planning and management, specifically to allow for the appropriate matching of inorganic and organic fertiliser to crop requirements. This will save money on wasted inputs and reduce the loss of nutrients to the environment, diffusing pollution and emissions whilst improving the potential for carbon capture on the land.
Applicants must also have completed a Carbon Audit as above.
Farm Advisory Service (FAS)
Every farmer will be able to apply for up to £3,700 worth of advice tailored to their holding. SGRPID will also introduce a free FAS website which will provide an advice line and support farmers through events, podcasts, technical notes, and online tools.
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NORTHERN IRELAND |
In late 2021 DAERA published the ‘Future Agricultural Policy Framework Portfolio for Northern Ireland’. The key tenets being:
- Increased agricultural productivity compared with other key nations
- Environmentally sustainable agriculture in terms of air quality, water quality, soil health, biodiversity and net zero carbon targets.
- Improve resilience to external shocks (such as market and currency volatility, extreme weather events, etc.)
- Strengthen agri-food industry supply chains.
To meet these objectives, an array of grants will be made available to farmers. These grants include the Beef Sustainability Package and the Farming with Nature Package.
The most conspicuous difference between Northern Ireland and the approach of the other regions is the announcement Farm Sustainability Payment.
Farm Sustainability Payment (FSP)
DAERA’s analysis of the farming sector between 2014-2019 suggested that in certain years the average farm would be loss-making without direct payments. To ease the phasing out of BPS a similar scheme will be retained, albeit with reducing payments. The ‘Farm Sustainability Payment’ will be an area-based payment using existing entitlements and the current entitlement transfer system to sell, gift or lease entitlements.
Other than the change in name there are a few differences to BPS;
- land must have:
- Cattle or sheep,
- Or pigs/poultry combined with grass selling,
- Or at least 3ha of arable or horticultural crop (excluding grass)
during their 2020 or 2021 single application.
- The overall minimum claim size threshold will be 5 ha.
- Land used solely for grass/silage production or just maintaining land suitably for grazing or cultivation or with grazed with horses will not qualify.
From 2024 payments will be reduced after a cap of £60,000 from when they hit certain progressive payment bands starting with 20% at £60,000-80,000, 40% between £80,000 and £100,000 and 60% between £100,000 and £150,000. The top band of between £150,000-£190,000 will receive an 80% reduction.
Conditionality
To receive payment there will be the following conditions to comply with:
- New Farm Sustainability Standards.
- Participation in a Soil Nutrient Health Scheme.
- Development of a Nutrient Management Plan.
- Recording of sire identity on APHIS/NIFAIS for all dairy and beef herds.
Initially, the budget allocated will be similar to current direct support payment arrangements with the majority of funding allocated to it. This will provide a basic safety net for the early transition away from BPS. However, the budget will reduce to a much lower level as funding is released to other schemes.
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SUMMARY |
It seems that in each instance direct payments will continue throughout a transitionary period. There are fairly significant differences between nations in the pace and extent of change. By reducing direct payments, funding will be reallocated to new support measures. Whilst across the board the value of support to the whole sector will be relatively similar to BPS, it will be targeted in quite different manners although always with a strong emphasis on environmental goals.
However at the time of writing there is pressure to review agricultural support in the UK in light of high energy prices and the continued threat from Russia in Ukraine on food security.
