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MartinHarper
I am off to the Cereals show (see here) tomorrow afternoon - the Mecca for arable farmers.  The RSPB is there, as ever, talking to farmers about how they can help wildlife while farming profitably. 
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Some farmers might have been wondering what they will have to do differently as a result of new 'greening' conditions placed on their Single Farm payment (see here for background). 
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Not much is the answer.
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Defra (see here) has decided to promote simplicity and flexibility rather than focusing on environmental outcomes such as reversing the declines in farmland birds, beetles and butterflies.
The defence would say, well, Brussels gave them a hospital pass by coming up with a messy measure whose environmental outcomes were always going to be limited and besides, we'll deliver our environmental improvements through the £3 billion available for agri-environment.
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The case for the prosecution would say, hang on, if the UK Government was really committed to realising its laudable ambition for being the first generation to be passing on the natural environment in a better state to the next, then perhaps it would have made the £15 billion of taxpayers money (about £400 per taxpayer per year) that goes into farming work much harder.  Instead, it has failed to maximise the amount of money that it could have invested in wildlife-friendly farming and now it has made the greening measure meaningless.
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Here's an example of why the final decision is so poor.  Arable farmers are now obliged to put 5% of their land in Ecological Focus Areas.  That sounds good, doesn't it - a sort of modern set-aside measure to help wildlife alongside productive land?  Alas, the options available for farmers mean that they are able to include nitrogen-fixing crops like peas and beans in their EFA contribution.  
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At our commercial, intensive, 183 hectare arable farm in Cambridgeshire, we already grow peas and beans on 34 hectares of land which once odd weighting rules are applied mean that we have about three times the amount to meet our EFA target.  What makes this so bonkers is that peas last year were our most profitable crop netting £684 per hectare.
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So we have a situation where public money which could have been used to protect semi-natural habitat is being used to support a commercial crop.
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We live in a strange world.
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The upshot of all of this is that Defra has now put all its environmental eggs in the agri-environment basket.  Over the next few months, hard-working Defra civil servants will be putting the finishing touches to the new scheme and we hope for great things.  But, when the NFU come knocking on the Defra door inevitably saying it is "their" money, please, for once, tell them that the priority is to deliver more for the public money, protect our finest wildlife sites and recover farmland wildlife. 

  • As you say Martin another major opportunity missed by DEFRA. Since the present Secrtary of State assumed his position, one has to think very hard indeed as to what, if anything, Defra has done to help improve biodiversity.I can't actually think of anything.

    Might be interesting to check as to how other EU Governments have handled this new round of CAP payments.