Support payments to remain ‘broadly the same’

While Environment Secretary Michael Gove might have stopped short of issuing an absolute guarantee that farm support payments would remain at current levels until 2024, he left yesterday’s Oxford Farming Conference in no doubt that it was his intention to keep them “broadly the same” for five years after Brexit.

In a generally wellreceived speech, he made it plain that support measures would change radically in the long term – but he proposed that a domestic version of the current BPS system would continue beyond Brexit in England at least, envisaging a fiveyear transition period for the industry:

“Five years seems like a good starting point for a debate about how we can balance the need to give people the flexibility they need to make the transition – while at the same time not perpetuating a state of affairs where people rely on an existing form of subsidy and think that the new world will never dawn,” said Gove.

Striking out at the current are-based payment system, he said that while new support measures would be subject of a consultation to be launched 0 Michael Gove’s speech was generally well received in the spring, these would move away from “rewarding landowners for simply owning land” – adding that in the meantime he proposed that a cap would be placed on those receiving the highest payments.

Gove also indicated that he wanted a simpler regulatory system. While policy would be “broadly” aligned with European Union policy during the first two years, beyond this he said support could be issued without the need to comply with “the onerous existing cross-compliance rules and procedures” which he said focused on issues such as the mathematical measurement of field margins rather than delivering real benefits.

Support beyond the transition period was, he indicated set to move towards public payments for public goods, emphasising that these would be made for services which could not be rewarded through the marketplace – listing natural capital, soil health and other environmental payments as the preferred route.

He said that while the transition period might go some way to answering the industry’s calls for “certainty”, such a luxury was seldom an option in the modern world – and that to deliver a thriving agricultural sector, farmers needed to innovate and adapt:

“The reality of our times is not just that change is the only constant, but that accelerating change is the new normal.

“If we’re going to make the most of opportunities and challenges then it’s critical that we recognise that there is much, much more that is changing in our world than our relationship with the EU.” l While Paolo de Castro MEP, vice-chairman to the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development told the conference that he echoed Gove’s hopes for tariff-free trade with the EU after Brexit, he warned that non-tariff barriers could also be a problem in the future.

And he warned that without alignment with EU rules the UK could face could face difficulties getting produce not only into Europe itself, but also into many other world countries which relied on compliance with the EU legislation and regulations for any goods which they imported.

And while both speakers agreed that a sciencebased approach should be adopted in drawing up legislation, Castro said that any difference in approach – such as the use of glyphosatebeyonditscurrentfiveyear licence – could create barriers to UK exports.

However, accentuating that trade was a twoway road, Ted Mckinney, under-secretary at the US Department of Agriculture, said that the vilification of glyphosate – which he termed one of the world’s safest chemicals – by some organisations in Europe was “darned near a crime” and marked one area where Britain could say “enough” after Brexit.