Plan to Slash Basic Payment rates for Farmers and Land Managers in England
The NFU is urging the government to postpone its plans to slash basic payment rates for farmers and land managers in England in 2022 and 2023 amid a turbulent period for UK agriculture.
Direct payments in England will be phased out over a seven-year agricultural transition period (2021-27), starting this December where most farmers will receive a 5-25% cut to their annual Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) cheque.
The NFU is not calling for the planned reduction in BPS payments for 2021 to be reversed.
However, it is seeking the postponement to BPS reductions in 2022 and 2023, alongside a review of Defra’s future farming programme for England.
NFU president Minette Batters said farmers and growers were currently facing huge challenges, even before the phasing out of direct payments and replacing those with the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, which Defra doesn’t expect to be fully operational until 2024.
“I really fear for the future success of farming in this country if the government presses ahead with its current timetable to transition to its new agriculture policy schemes which simply aren’t ready,” said Mrs Batters.
“That’s why we are calling for a postponement to the BPS reductions in 2022 and 2023, alongside a thorough review, to ensure the new policies and schemes are ready with clear incentives and objectives.”
Multiple challenges
Farmers and growers continue to deal with multiple challenges that are causing severe disruption to essential food-producing businesses, the union said.
The “perfect storm” has triggered a worker shortage – both on farms and in the production and distribution of food. This has caused serious harm to the UK’s just-in-time supply chains, and has resulted in shortages in some product lines, leading to empty supermarket shelves.
Meanwhile, rising inflation, which is adding increased costs to farms, against a backdrop of disrupted trade flows and a fierce retail price war, is causing huge challenges to people trying to run effective farm businesses.
Agricultural policy is a devolved matter and, on 21 September, the Welsh government announced that it would extend the BPS until 2023. Scotland and Northern Ireland have similarly delayed changes to their regimes.
In England, as things stand, basic payments will be halved by 2024 and abolished by the end of 2027, when the new ELM schemes – which will pay farmers “public money for delivering public goods”
Source: https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/business-management/agricultural-transition/nfu-seeks-delay-to-bps-cuts-for-england-in-2022-and-2023
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