Call for ‘greening simplification’

The announcement of the latest changes to the greening regulations for the 2018 support scheme, released by the Scottish Government yesterday, prompted a call for a “simple condensed list” of the changes to be published.

With hard-pressed farmers struggling to harvest this year’s crop and get the first of next year’s crops sown, NFU Scotland said that an easy guide to identifying the differences in the greening rules from 2017 scheme year to 2018 was required.

“That will allow farmers to more easily identify the right greening measures for their farm,” said the union’s president, Andrew Mccornick.

The new guidance, which was endorsed by the expert group set up by the Scottish Government under the chairmanship of Professor Russel Griggs’s included: l The inclusion of hedges and agro forestry as ecological focus area (EFA) l Changes to the management of EFA fallow regarding the maintenance of drains l Banning the use of plant protection products, such as pesticides and herbicides on EFA l The merging of some EFA features such as field margins and buffer strips

While the majority of the changes were welcomed by farmers, Mccornick said that a downside was the new EU requirement which banned the use of plant protection products on many EFA options, including on nitrogen fixing crops which would greatly reduce the attractiveness of this environmentally friendly option to many growers.

He also said that the union had a number of issues requiring clarification on some of the rules around EFA, in particular on hedges and grazing of margins.