Farmers will be left frustrated after Defra announced it was not allowing dual use for mid-tier environmental stewardship scheme applicants this year, according to the NFU.
Dual use - where a landowner receives a payment for an environmental management scheme and another, usually a farming tenant, receives a support payment under the common agricultural policy on the same parcel of land at the same time - is vital to the protection of wildlife and biodiversity.
NFU Vice President Guy Smith said: “The NFU has lobbied for the continuation of dual use throughout the development of Countryside Stewardship to allow business flexibility.
“So while we welcome the decision to allow dual use for applications for next year, it is frustrating that Defra has taken until now to reach a decision on this year’s applications so late in the process.
“The application window for mid-tier closes in eight days’ time, leaving very little time for applicants to change their applications in response. This confusion won’t encourage farmers to put in applications for this year. We also understand applicants have the choice to remove land with dual use from their application or leave making an application until next year.”
Dual use is the practice where, on the same parcel of land, there are different claimants for agri-environment schemes and Basic Payment Scheme. Some examples of mid-tier environmental schemes, under the new Countryside Stewardship schemes, includes reducing diffuse water pollution or improving the farmed environment from farmland birds and pollinators and more.
TFA Chief Executive George Dunn said “DEFRA’s decision defies logic and will perpetuate injustice in the landlord tenant system. DEFRA really has dropped the ball here”.
For some time EU Auditors have rightly been concerned about the legitimacy of allowing two separate individuals to use the same farmland at the same time to claim payments under different schemes. The TFA has also been concerned that whilst there are some examples where dual use operates fairly as between landlord and tenant, in many others it provides an open door for landlords to exploit their dominant position to gain the benefits of agri-environment schemes without bearing any of the responsibilities.
“How can it be the case that on the one hand it is farm tenants who are deemed to have land at their disposal for the purposes of claiming under the new Basic Payment Scheme whilst their landlords can be deemed to have management control to allow them to have access to agri-environment schemes? Only those who have the land at their disposal are properly able to deliver the necessary management control required for Countryside Stewardship,” said Mr Dunn.
“It will be interesting to see how this is received by the EU Auditors and whether this leaves England at a higher risk of disallowance and therefore having to pay back sums of money to the EU which have been wrongly paid out”, said Mr Dunn.
“The wider concern here is that increasingly we are losing the connection between support payments and active farmers. Food production in this country and across Europe relies upon taxpayer support. However, the move to area payments, the lack of a sensible active farmer test for eligibility to payments and now this decision on dual use means that increasingly the benefits of support are being received by landlords who are merely supplying an input to the food production process – land. We need complete reassessment of Government policy to ensure that active farmers producing food and looking after the natural environment are properly rewarded for their work,” said Mr Dunn.
“We have an old fashioned view in the TFA that the landlord’s legitimate return is rent, not from having access to schemes intended for the benefit of the farming community,” said Mr Dunn.
CLA Director of Policy and Advice Christopher Price said: “The dual use system is fundamental to sustaining important agri-environment schemes. In many cases it is the landowner who is investing in providing habitats for wildlife, managing woodland and waterways and so they should receive the payment.
“The CLA has been campaigning for this continuation for some time and this is a big win for farmers and landowners who wish to protect and improve the land that they manage.
“However, we are disappointed that dual use will not be made available to Mid Tier Countryside Stewardship applications for 2016. The CLA will continue to push for clarity on this matter.”
Confirming his support for dual use Defra Farming Minister George Eustice said:
“We have worked hard to identify a way of allowing dual use to continue so that it is possible to ensure that some of our most effective countryside stewardship projects can continue to be developed as part of the farmed environment.
“I am very pleased to be able to secure the future of this approach.”
Environmental schemes
Farmers and land managers who are applying for the Mid Tier Countryside Stewardship scheme are also reminded that the deadline for applications is 30 September.
