New projects funded to provide farmers with tailored on-farm advice to help them prepare for transition away from Common Agricultural Policy
New projects to help farmers and land managers prepare for life outside the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy have been given the green light, Farming Minister Victoria Prentis announced today.
Nine organisations have been awarded a share of the government’s £1 million Future Farming Resilience Funding, which will support farmers as they prepare for the transition to a new farming system.
The seven-year Agricultural Transition period will start in 2021 and see the current subsidy system of Direct Payments – which pay for the amount of land farmed – phased out from 2021 and replaced with a new system that rewards farmers and land managers for the ‘public goods’ they provide, such as better air and water quality, improved access to the countryside and measures to reduce flooding.
After years of being in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, the resilience fund provides grants for a variety of different projects which aim to help farmers fully understand the changes ahead and identify how to adapt their business models – including one-to-one advice on farms or group information workshops.
Beyond this, the government will help increase productivity and support diversification through a transformative package of productivity grants, launching in 2021. Ahead of the future Environment Land Management (ELM) scheme being fully rolled out, farmers and land managers are also being encouraged to apply for Countryside Stewardship (CS) as an additional income stream so they can start delivering environmental benefits on their land now.
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Posted On: 16/03/2020