NFU slams flood fund
THE government’s newly announced Farming Recovery Fund has been heavily criticised for locking too many floodstricken farmers out from applying to it.
Defra opened the new fund earlier this week to support farmers who had suered uninsurable damage to their land due to flooding this winter.
Under the scheme, farmers can access grants of between £500 and £25,000 to return their land to the condition it was in before flooding due to Storm Henk.
However, the NFU said there were already ‘major issues’ with the fund’s eligibility.
According to the union, some farmers who suered catastrophic impacts were told by the Rural Payment Agency (RPA) that they were not eligible for the fund.
This was mainly due to the fact that some of their aected areas were more than 150 meters from ‘main’ rivers.
The NFU said these included farmers with 90% of their land saturated or underwater, and huge damage to buildings and equipment.
“We are taking this up with Defra urgently,” said NFU vice president, Rachel Hallos.
“I cannot believe this is what ministers intended when they launched the fund, which was a welcome and well-intentioned development which seems to have been fundamentally let down in the detail.
“While the impact of the weather goes far beyond Storm Henk, this could have been a good start but, as it stands, it simply doesn’t work.”
Relentless heavy rain since October 2023 has le vast swathes of agricultural land saturated and in many cases still under water, with many arable farmers unable to plant crops and losing those that were in the ground.
The rain, combined with unseasonal low spring temperatures, is also having a major eect on livestock farmers, with a bleak attrition rate for lambs born this spring already clear.
The grant is to support the cost of re-cultivating and reinstating agricultural land that was flooded due to notably high river levels from January 2-12, 2024, caused by Storm Henk.
The Rural Payments Agency is administering the fund on behalf of Defra, with landowners or tenant farmers who occupied eligible land parcels at the time of Storm Henk able to claim £130 per hectare for recultivation work.
Eligible farmers can access grants of £500-£25,000 to return their land to the condition it was in before exceptional flooding due to Storm Henk.