Rural Affairs
Green groups call for farm funding shake-up
A COALITION of environmental groups will today call for a radical new approach to funding farmers and the countryside.
Wildlife and Countryside Link (Link) says farmers do not have sufficient financial incentives to produce food and look after the environment.
It wants the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) replaced by a single European Sustainable Land Management Policy.
Existing farm support payments would be phased out and replaced with support for positive land management.
Ian Woodhurst, chairman of Link's farming and rural development group, believes a new way of paying for the management of the environment needs to be found.
He said: "It needs to ensure secure supplies of food as well as a beautiful countryside, rich in wildlife and our historic assets for the public to enjoy.
"Yet we find there just isn't enough money to reward farmers for the countryside management they undertake.
| "It needs to ensure secure supplies of food as well as a beautiful countryside, rich in wildlife and our historic assets for the public to enjoy." | | Ian Woodhurst, chairman of Link |
|
"Producing food and looking after our environment should be one and the same thing."
Link, whose members manage more than 476,000 hectares of land, says production payments are being cut without sufficient incentives for farmers to look after wildlife and the environment.
It says some CAP funding destined for farming and the environment has been redirected to the Galileo space programme.
Link believes their approach would:
* protect and restore wildlife and habitats
* protect and enhance the historic environment, landscapes and woodlands
* ensure the sustainable use of limited water and soil resources
* help mitigate and adapt to challenges arising from climate change
* ensure the secure and sustainable production of animal welfare friendly food and other commodities.
It launches its report at a Parliamentary reception attended by Lord Rooker, Minister for Sustainable Food, Farming and Animal Health.
The report follows a warning from Alistair Davy, Swaledale farmer and chairman of the Hill Farming Initiative, that the whole upland economy is close to collapse.
The financial impact of foot and mouth and Bluetongue diseases, rising costs and poor prices have coincided with single farm payments being cut.
Agri-environment schemes which were supposed to compensate farmers have proved not to be open to all as originally intended.
Mr Davy has warned many farmers have little money left to spend in local businesses, let alone on the landscape, and has called for urgent and immediate government intervention.
12:02am Monday 10th March 2008
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