- Academics say government plans to replace farm subsidies after Brexit could mean that up to 25% of England's least profitable farms could go bankrupt.
- Dr Ludivine Petetin said "up to one in four" farms in England could "disappear" after Brexit in comments originally reported by the Farmers Guardian.
- The EU's Common Agricultural Policy has long been criticised by economists because it is not tied to market incentives, but academics warned the speed and scale of the changes could leave farmers without sufficient time to adapt and diversify their incomes.
- Environment secretary Michael Gove says the new system will reward farmers for "public goods" such as planting meadows and access to the countryside.
LONDON — Theresa May's plans to replace farm subsidies after Brexit could mean that up to 25% of English farms could go bankrupt, according to academics.
Dr Ludivine Petetin, an expert in agricultural law at Cardiff University, told Business Insider that proposals from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to replace existing EU farm subsidies with environmental payments mean "up to one in four" farms could "disappear."
The EU's Basic Payment Scheme currently provides land-based subsidies to farmers that, in England, represent a significant portion of many farmers' incomes. When Britain leaves the EU, Defra says it will replace the basic payment scheme with a new policy which rewards farms for environmental schemes, but experts believe the overall budget allocated for English farmers could reduce significantly, and that is causing concern.
"From reading the paper, it seems that the payments being given to farmers will reduce in the long-term," said Petetin. "That will mean that those farms which are struggling at the moment — even with direct payments coming from the EU — will not make it afterwards."
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