CAP greening criteria announced
10 Jun 2014 03:47 PM
Common Agricultural Policy greening criteria
have been announced.
New
regulations that give farmers flexibility over how they implement EU rules have
been announced today by Environment Secretary Owen Paterson.
Under new EU regulations, known as greening, farmers
must ensure 5 per cent of their land is set aside as an Ecological Focus Area
(EFA), instead of beingused for farming.
To
ensure that farmers are able to continue their essential work of growing food,
improving the environment and boosting the rural economy, Defra has chosen a
package of options which give farmers flexibility over how they comply with the
rules.
Farmers will be able to choose how to meet
the EFA requirement from a list which includes land lying fallow,
buffer strips, ‘catch and cover crops’ used to manage soil
fertility and quality, Nitrogen Fixing Crops such as legumes and
hedgerows.
To
receive CAP payments, farmers also have to adhere to ‘cross
compliance’ environmental regulations. To reduce the burden on farmers,
Defra has cut these measures from 17 to 11.
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson
said:
We
want farmers to be free to do what they do best: producing food and helping to
grow the economy. I have said all along the EU’s CAP reform is
disappointing, but we have worked hard to remove the worst aspects and to make
these new rules as easy as possible and given flexibility on how they are
implemented, as well as reducing the burden of regulations.
We
have allocated £3.5 billion to rural development schemes, which we
believe is a much better way of improving the environment and growing the rural
economy.
To
ensure that the Rural Payments Agency (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.
Farmers are required to implement ‘greening’
measures by EU rules, or they will lose up to 30% of their Basic Payment Scheme
payment. The greening rules cover three areas – crop diversification,
Ecological Focus Areas, and measures to maintain permanent
grassland.
Defra argued against greening requirements forming part
of the Basic Payment Scheme, known as pillar one of the CAP, during EU
negotiations. This is because we believe environmental benefits are better
delivered through the Rural Development Programme, known as pillar two of
the CAP.
Defra has transferred a greater proportion of our
overall £15 billion CAPbudget into pillar 2, which will mean
£3.5 billion will be available for schemes to improve the environment and
grow the rural economy.
More information
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A greening leaflet giving farmers more information on our
previously agreed decisions on Ecological Focus Areas and crop diversification
has also been published.
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A short summary of our plans for the Rural Development Programme is also available