A plan to use all of England's farm grants to protect the environment is being diluted, the BBC has learned. Currently, farmers get a guaranteed EU grant based on the amount of land they farm. Ministers said that after Brexit they must earn grants by doing things that benefit Nature, like planting forests or capturing flood waters. But those with smaller farms said the new nature-friendly system wouldn't offer them enough to stay in business. So, to the alarm of environmentalists, they've persuaded ministers to create a new scheme rewarding them for simple actions such as conserving soil, or keeping pesticides out of streams. Environmentalists say farmers shouldn't be paid extra for enhancing soil which benefits their business anyway - or for obeying the laws prohibiting water pollution. But the government has accepted the need for those working on small farms - particularly in the uplands - to be cushioned as the old EU grant system is phased out over the next seven years. Ministers will replace the EU policy with a new system known as ELMS, the Environmental Land Management Scheme. The new system demands "public money for public goods", and it's won applause from people on both sides of the Brexit debate. But under pressure from farmers, ministers are now drawing up a parallel easy-to-enter scheme - the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) - to reward farmers for basic activities round the farm such as crop rotation. Environmentalists say actions like this are normal good practice and shouldn't be funded by the taxpayer. They say the easy-to-do actions under the SFI will divert taxpayers' cash from bigger landscape-scale changes such as re-wilding under the more ambitious ELMS. But farmers are relieved - they say with Brexit uncertainty it's important for them to secure some income without too much difficulty. Those with small farms take a very different view - they're relieved that... |