PAYMENT FOR PLAYING OUR PART

The NFU is pressing hard to make sure all growers can be fairly rewarded through the new Environmental Land Management scheme

Words by: Spence Gunn

It’s fair to say moving away from the area-based payments of the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy to rewarding growers with ‘public money for public goods’ has largely been welcomed by the horticulture industry. After all, many are already managing land and crops in ways that deliver ‘services’ ranging from wildlife and habitat conservation to flood alleviation and emissions reduction, alongside their main task of feeding the nation.

But what we have learnt so far suggests there’s more work to be done to make the new support mechanisms benefit everyone in our sector.

Defra has started to phase out BPS payments and begun the transition to a future system of support which includes the Environmental Land Management Scheme or ELMs, which will be fully rolled-out by 2024. It wants at least 70% of farms to be enrolled into one of its

agri-environment schemes by 2028, more than double the current number.

More detail has emerged this summer on the element of ELMs that will be of most relevance to individual farmers’ and growers’ businesses – the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). While the options for claiming payments under the SFI are initially limited for horticultural businesses, the NFU believes there is scope to make it accessible to a wider range of crops and growing systems.

“ELMs, and the SFI that forms part of it is a great ambition. We think it will be an important, but not the only, support opportunity for growers in the future, sitting alongside, for example, a future scheme to support productivity improvements,” says NFU horticulture and potatoes adviser Allie Hesketh.

There have been extensive discussions between the NFU and Defra about how the SFI will work for horticulture and potatoes and some adaptations have already been made to help more growers access the initial phases. “That work is still under way, and the NFU continues to engage with Defra to help make this scheme accessible for all,” adds Ms Hesketh.

NFU Horticulture and Potatoes Board chair Ali Capper says important changes are needed both to scheme design and payments if ELMs is to stack up for growers.

The SFI 22 pilot includes an ‘arable and horticultural soils’ standard.

It aims to improve soil structure and organic matter content and achieve ‘public good’ benefits such as reductions in diffuse pollution, soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions, flood amelioration and enhanced carbon capture.

Three levels return payments of £26, £41 and £60 per ha and involve soil management planning, the establishment of green cover over winter, organic matter measures and low or minimum tillage on increasing percentages of the land. However, peat soils with more then 20% organic matter to 40cm or deeper are specifically excluded.

The elements of the scheme so far have an arable focus, with some access for vegetable production, but more clarity is needed on how things would work for specifi c crops and for those with short-term land tenure agreements. And while Defra has increased the levels of some payments, many growers believe they don’t yet refl ect crop values in the sector.

“We’re talking about high-value crops on relatively small areas with little scope for taking land out of production and diverting it to environmental schemes,” says Ms Capper. “The current payments would not cover the costs of doing that.”

Plans for a limited ‘pilot’ of the SFI were announced earlier this year, and those farmers and growers who expressed an interest were invited to submit a full application for agreements starting in October.

Any growers claiming BPS this year have also been invited to apply for an ‘introductory SFI off er’, known as SFI 22, under which payments can be made for managing soils to the scheme’s standards (see p18).

Defra sees this as a way of introducing the industry to some of the scheme’s core elements before it is gradually expanded through to 2024.

For instance, the SFI will, in the future, include an ‘arable and horticultural land standard’. This will off er payments for actions such as providing resources for birds and pollinators (nest sites or fl ower-rich fi eld margins, for example), through to maintenance of ponds or scrubland and precision application of fertilisers and crop protection products at the standard’s advanced level.

“This initial SFI 22 off er will only be relevant to a limited number of growers,” points out Ms Hesketh.

“One of the main restrictions is its exclusion of peat-based soils with a high organic matter content, which rules out large areas of vegetable production. Those unable to claim Basic Payments, such as ornamentals growers and some glasshouse producers, will also be unable to access the off er as currently outlined.

“However, Defra says further standards will be included as the off er develops and the NFU will continue to highlight opportunities to capture a wider range of horticultural growers. “As more and more details become available we’re continuing to keep Defra aware of any barriers to uptake, including whether the payment amounts really compensate where production of high-value horticultural produce is aff ected. “The SFI has scope to include a horticulture-specifi c standard and we’re already working to infl uence the development of this.” Mrs Capper says a horticulture-specifi c framework must include incentives tailored to the full range of crops and cropping systems, rewarding growers for operating to the best environmental practices within them.

“In an orchard you can choose the cheapest grass sward option for the alleyways or opt for a wildfl ower mix; you can keep piles of wood on headlands, you can have native bees and bug boxes,” she says. “But it all takes more time, eff ort and cost which can’t be passed on to customers and that’s why an adequate level of reward – a real incentive – is needed if our ‘Opportunities must sector is to play its part in achieving be tailored to crops the country’s policy aims for public and include real goods. Any scheme based on income incentives,’ says the foregone will not work well for NFU’s Ali Capper horticultural crops.”

The Sustainable Farming Incentive will account for 30% of the funding available through ELMs and is the part of the scheme aimed at individual agricultural and horticultural businesses.

ELMs includes two further schemes, however, designed to fund projects that would require larger-scale interventions and cooperation between businesses and other organisations.

The Local Nature Recovery Scheme is being designed for actions that ‘support local nature recovery and meet local environmental priorities’. Full details are still to be announced but an initial pilot is expected by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the Landscape Recovery Scheme will support restoration and enhancement of natural ecosystems through long-term changes in land use, for example through creation of new woodland or wetland restoration.

Applications open this autumn for sites of 500-5,000ha, for projects starting in 2022. Defra hopes to have 10 of these largescale projects running by 2024.

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