Written by John Swire
In a letter sent today, 22 September 2020, to George Eustice, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 17 environment groups are warning that changes and delays to funding arrangements by Defra are leaving its ambitious new farming policy drifting from its core aim of ‘public money for public goods’ and ‘lagging behind schedule’.
The environmental experts warn that the Government’s new plans to introduce a Sustainable Farm Incentive (SFI) is greenwash and offers no value to taxpayers or to the environment. The SFI proposals which environmental groups have seen propose paying farmers for activities which are simply good practice and risk replicating the mistakes of older agri-environment schemes by paying farmers for ‘deadweight’ – easy activities which have no environmental impact.
Instead of the SFI, environmental groups are urging the Government to get the Future Farming and Countryside Programme, including the Environmental Land Management scheme, back on track.
Time is running out for the Government to publicise details of how schemes will work and the funding available for land managers, with uncertainty undermining confidence in the scheme from both farmers and environmentalists – the new SFI is a distraction from this. The organisations’ letter highlights that under current Defra plans:
- Proposed transitional farming funding arrangements will neither prepare farmers for a future system nor deliver meaningful environmental improvement.
- There continues to be no clarity on timings, objectives and vision for roll-out of a future Environmental Land Management funding scheme from 2025 and a national pilot to be rolled out next year
Richard Benwell CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link said: ‘Environmental groups welcomed the Government’s ambitious future farming policy proposals with open arms. But with progress on farming funding arrangements stalling we look set to see traditional subsidies continue in the short-term, propping up our existing failing farming system and the problems that come with it. Without a radical shift in delivery to match the promised landmark shift in farming policy, farming funding will continue to do little to tackle our polluted rivers, disappearing hedgerows and woodland, exhausted soils, and declining wildlife.’
Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts says: “Farmers, foresters and land managers manage three quarters of the land in the country – they have a unique role in tackling the nature and climate crises. The Government has promised that the cornerstone of their future farming policy will be an ambitious Environmental Land Management scheme which rewards farmers for work that only they can do– from bringing back threatened species like the barn owl or dormouse to locking up carbon in their land. Such work benefits everybody. We are gravely concerned that the Sustainable Farm Incentive will prop up ‘business as usual’ and offer zero return for both taxpayers and the environment.”
Christopher Price of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and Chair of the Wildlife and Countryside Link Agriculture group said: ‘The farming funding limbo Defra has created is undermining the credibility of its future farming policy. Public money for public goods seem to have been forgotten in the transitional funding scheme that is being proposed, with public money being diverted to business as usual. Farmers are being left in the dark about what money is available and unable to plan ahead to invest in environmental improvements on their farms. The public want to see our nature and climate crises tackled and it is vital that the public’s money is spent on the transformation in farming needed to restore our natural world.’
Emma Marsh, Director, RSPB England said: ‘For the very first time in decades, the Government is designing England’s own agricultural policy. We are heartened by its promises to ensure that the taxpayer will reward those farmers who provide a vital role in helping to address the nature and climate emergencies. Like the government, we want to see farmers supported to play their role reversing the dramatic declines of farmland birds and the loss of species-rich habitats. But we need to be ambitious and we are concerned, especially with suggestions around the so-called Sustainable Farm Incentive, that we may slip back into old ways where farmers are simply given hand-outs for doing what they are both legally required to and what is necessary for the operation of a farm business. We really must set our sights higher to create a world-leading farming system that plays a significant role in helping to tackle the nature and climate crises, and helps restore the land and natural processes upon which a supply of healthy, nutritious food depends.’
Under future farming proposals Government funding for farms is intended to shift from basic payments (based largely on the size of the farm) to an Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme, which provides payments based on what public goods (particularly environmental improvements, public access to the countryside and animal welfare) the farm is delivering. Defra intends to put transitional funding arrangements in place from 2022-24 – known as the Sustainable Farming Incentive – to bridge the two schemes. However this initiative looks set to move very little away from the current subsidy system.
Environmentalists claim plans for the Sustainable Farming Incentive would mean money that has been earmarked for helping the environment would instead prop up ‘business as usual’ with the shift to public goods focussed funding put off to 2024. They say this scheme further clouds already unclear plans from the Government on how it will shift to a more sustainable farming future, with no clear vision or objectives published for the future ELM scheme and no detail available on the ELM pilot due to launch next year (2022).
These delays and lack of clarity for farmers about future changes could jeopardise this once in a generation opportunity to address the nature and climate crises, enhance public access and animal welfare, deliver better value for taxpayers’ money and secure a sustainable future for the farming sector.
To get the programme back on track, the groups are urging the Government to ensure that:
- Transitional farming funding to 2024 is used, as originally intended, as a ‘stepping stone’ to a new ELM scheme in 2025. This should focus on adapting the current Country Stewardship Programme to prepare farmers for the public goods focussed future, rather than devising an entirely new scheme
- Defra sets out overarching objectives for ELM as a guiding star for designing a successful system
- the Department publish a timetable and objectives for its ELM pilot
- the Government consults on the components of the Future Farming and Countryside Programme and how they join up
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