Plea for more time to plan future of farming
FARMERS have urged the Government to delay its planned phasing out of farm support payments in two years’ time as the Agriculture Bill is plunged into uncertainty.
The legislation, which sets out a new system for the delivery of ‘public goods’ such as better water quality and higher animal welfare, has failed to be carried over into the next session of Parliament.
A new version of the bill will now need to be reintroduced in the next Queen’s Speech on October 14.
A seven-year transition period to phase out direct payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to be replaced with a new Environmental Land Management (ELM) system, is due to start in 2021, but the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has warned it is “unreasonable” to continue to plan for the phasing out of the current system on the present timetable.
“With the fall of the Agriculture Bill, there is no guarantee at all that the legislation will be in place to enable the government to begin its planned transition to a new farm support system in 2021,” explained
Minette Batters, president of the NFU and a Westcountry farmer. “It is totally unreasonable to keep farmers in a state of uncertainty about what system might be in place from 2021.
“We are proposing the Government’s plans to move away from the current system are postponed by at least a year, to run from 2022 to 2028. We hope that continued uncertainty will not require a postponement of more than a year.”
The Agriculture Bill, which was first introduced in September 2018 by former Environment Secretary Michael Gove, finished its passage through the Public Bill Committee in late 2018 and has been parked ever since while Government tried to get a Brexit deal over the line.
David George, from the South West NFU, said while it was “not really surprising” that the Bill has fallen victim to the political upheaval currently affecting the House of Commons, the push-back to “square one” of the legislative process is “concerning”. He added: “And there is yet more doubt about what shape farming support will take after Brexit – which will do nothing for the confidence of our members.
“In the South West region, CAP payments are crucial and make up between a half and a third of farm incomes, so it’s important that we know what arrangements will be in place to support farmers after we leave the EU.
“In these circumstances, it seems sensible for the Government to delay the new arrangements by a year, to allow time for matters to be resolved.”
Mrs Batters continued: “If we are to make a success of farming in the UK after Brexit, then its critical we get it right. Farmers will need to trust that the new system works properly, delivers its intended outcomes and rewards farmers both as producers of high-quality food and custodians of the farmed environment. Rushing the reform programme in the absence of any legal framework and with the outcome of Brexit still so uncertain could fatally undermine this hugely important piece of work.”