The deadline for applications to the SFI Pilot has been extended until 30th September 2021 (originally 1st September). The Pilot is for those who expressed an interest in the scheme earlier in the year. Furthermore, Defra continues to make amendments to the online guidance for the SFI Pilot. There seems to be a lot of guidance, we think the best place to start and ‘navigate’ from is https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sustainable-farming-incentive-pilot-guidance.
Scotland’s Rural Affairs Secretary, Mairi Gougeon is urging the public to take part in a consultation to help shape a Local Food Strategy. The consultation, which runs until 26th November is the first stage in a strategy to make high quality food accessible to all and provide the benefits of local food. The consultation can be found at https://www.gov.scot/news/local-food-strategy-consultation-launch/
Some Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (HT) Agreement Holders could be offered the opportunity to replace their existing agreement with a new one under domestic regulations. Called a ‘Countryside Stewardship 5 in 10 Agreement’, these are HT agreements with 5-year options ending on 31st December 2021 and 10 or 20 year options that will continue until the agreement’s expiry date. The replacement agreements will run for 10 or 20 years and will be subject to the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier manual for agreements starting in 2022. It is not completely clear, but it appears the options coming to their 5 year end will be extended so this land continues to be managed environmentally. NE will carry out initial assessments to see if an agreement is suitable for a replacement. If this is deemed to be the case, the RPA will write to agreement holders inviting them to apply. It will be possible to terminate a replacement agreement early, without penalty, at the end of an agreement year if a place in ELM has been secured. More information and conditions of eligibility can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/countryside-stewardship-5-in-10-agreements?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=7f02f389-2e47-4988-ba6a-12eb303e79fc&utm_content=daily
The Farm Business Grant (FBG) opens in Wales on 1st September 2021 for expressions of interest. The closing date is 1st October and successful applicants will have four months in which to purchase and claim for items. The FBG provides a 40% contribution towards capital items which have been pre-identified to improve technical, financial and environmental performance. A budget of £2m is available under this round.
The disruption caused by the Covid pandemic, coupled with Brexit effects, has severely disrupted some parts of the economy. The effects on farm are not yet widespread, but increases in costs and lack of product availability are being seen.
Some of the most noticeable effects are on building materials – notably steel and timber. This is pushing up costs for those with a building project ongoing and, in some cases, it has been impossible to source the right materials. Where grants are being received, these are far less attractive than before as the rates were set before cost increases. Timber prices have gone up due to the ‘cutting season’ being disrupted by Covid last year. Covid has also had an effect on global steel output although a larger factor is the reduction in Chinese production to reduce pollution. In both cases higher shipping costs (see below) and additional Brexit-related trade costs are adding to the increases.
Transport is another area where there has been disruption. At the global level, costs for container and bulk shipping have risen strongly. There has been a combination of factors that has led to a capacity shortage. One of these if the unbalanced reopening of the world economy, resulting in containers, ships and men often being in the ‘wrong place’. Closer to home it is lorry drivers who are in shortage. An existing shortfall has been exacerbated by EU drivers leaving due to a combination of Brexit and Covid. Covid has also delayed HGV driving test meaning few new drivers are coming through. High-profile shortages such as Nando’s chicken and McDonalds milkshakes have already been reported (although the formers is as much about a shortage of poultry processing staff as transport issues). There are few reports that deliveries to and from farms have been affect as yet, but it will be an area of concern of the coming months.
The Tenancy Reform Industry Group (TRIG) has published a new Code of Good Practice to help Landlords and Tenants agree variations to their Tenancy Agreement. The code, snappily titled, Code of Good Practice for Projects, Schemes or Works Requiring Landlord’s Consent in Agricultural Tenancies, updates the previous 2004 Code of Good Practice. The update coincides with the introduction of the Agricultural Holdings (Requests for Landlord’s Consent or Variation of Terms and and the Sustainability Test (England)) Regulations 2021 SI619.
The code will help those looking to make use of the new Regulations and also in a wider context of the relationship between Landlords and Tenants. It has been designed to provide Landlord’s and Tenant’s guidance when the parties are agreeing terms to vary an existing Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 (AHA 1986) Tenancy or a Farm Business Tenancy (FBT) to allow agricultural and non-agricultural diversification, access to financial assistance schemes (such as ELM) and compliance with statutory duties where the Agreement includes clauses to prevent these practices. It was recognised by TRIG that with the move from BPS direct payments to the ‘public money for public goods’ approach, some tenants may not be able to access this support due to restrictive clauses in their tenancies, some often dating back many years, when the agricultural landscape was very different to now. The full code can be found via https://www.rics.org/uk/upholding-professional-standards/sector-standards/land/tenancy-reform-industry-group-trig-code-of-good-practice-for-projects-schemes-or-works-requiring-landlords-consent-in-agricultural-tenanciespage/
The Irish Government has set out a vision for Ireland’s agri-food sector. The Food Vision 2030, is a new 10 year strategy for the sector, with the objective of achieving a climate-neutral food system by 2050 with verifiable progress achieved by 2030. It also encompasses other emissions, biodiversity and water quality together with a range of targets for organic farming, fisheries, forestry and food waste. Its vision is that Ireland will become a world leader in Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) over the next decade. The document continues a subtle change of emphasis. In the first national strategy (Agri-Food 2010, published in 2000) the focus was all about growing Ireland’s agricultural sector and boosting exports. In successive 5-year strategy updates, through to Food Wise 2025, the environment has gradually come to the fore.
To realise the vision, the strategy has 22 key goals and actions grouped into 4 high-level Missions;
The full strategy extends to 192 pages and can be found via https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/c73a3-food-vision-2030-a-world-leader-in-sustainable-food-systems/
The Environment Agency (EA) has released a Regulatory Position Statement (RPS) on the application of organic manure this autumn. Under the Farming Rules for Water (Rule 1), when organic manure is applied to agricultural land, the application must not exceed the needs of the soil or crop on the land and must not give rise to a significant risk of agricultural diffuse pollution. This effectively makes autumn and winter spreading on a lot of farms impossible. For example, if spreading can only take place if there is a crop need, this would mean grass, which is dormant at this time of year, would have no crop need and therefore spreading cannot take place. The rules are not new, but it appears the EA note has highlighted the issue to the industry and perhaps indicates a more robust approach to enforcement from the EA than in the past.
However, for this autumn and winter, the EA has confirmed if the conditions of the RPS are followed it will be possible to have a plan to apply organic manure to agricultural land that may exceed the needs of the soil or crop on that land. But importantly, the plan must not cause a risk of pollution. Those using the RPS will still need to show that applications do not exceed the requirements of the crop for the whole duration of its growing cycle. Farmers must also be able to show that using the RPS is the only option and it has not been feasible to store the organic manure at the place of production or use. And also that it has not been possible to store the manure off-site or send it to an AD plant or other effluent treatment plant.
Following further lobbying from the NFU, the EA updated its guidance further on 25th August to include a ‘hierarchy of actions:
There are strict conditions on how and where the organic matter can be spread. If land managers need to use the RPS they must contact the EA. Contact details and full guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spreading-organic-manure-on-agricultural-land-rps-252/spreading-organic-manure-on-agricultural-land-rps-252. The RPS will be withdrawn on 1st March 2022, unless there is a further extension. This is only a short term ‘fix’ to the problem, which will arise again next autumn. Many in the industry have rised concerns as to how practical the rules are. A move to more storage and spring and summer spreading looks like the only solution, but this will take time and money.
The Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) initiative is being expanded to cover the whole of England. Currently the programme, which gives farmers support to reduce water and air pollution, is only available on 40% of English farmland. But by March 2023 Defra has said every farmer in England will be able to access advice and support to reduce pollution. It has announced an extra £17m of funding will be introduced over the next three years.
CSF, which is a partnership between Defra, Natural England (NE) and the Environment Agency (EA), provides free one-to-one advice to farmers. Natural England advisors also support farmers to make applications to the Countryside Stewardship (CS) for grants towards management practices and capital investments to reduce on farm pollution, such as planting new grassland buffer strips or riverside trees, or using better slurry storage facilities. Some funding via CS is only available with support from a Catchment Sensitive Farming Officer (CSFO) and if the land is in a priority catchment area. It is unclear whether this announcement will mean the whole of England now falls within this category and these grants are available to all.
The extra funding will mean more NE advisors will be available to help farmers implement practical solutions to reduce pollution. But it will also fund 50 new EA inspectors to carry out an increased number of farm inspections.
NFU Scotland has called for area-payments and coupled payments to continue. However, current direct payments should be amended to introduce more ‘conditionality’ in the areas of biodiversity, climate change and efficiency. This would see tiers of payment levels with different rates depending on the measures a farmer choses to enact.
It is envisaged that the new support arrangements would commence from 2026 (the date set out in legislation for a new Scottish support regime to be in place). In the meantime the farming sector should be prepared for the new scheme through a ‘just transition’. The NFUS states that this should start as soon as possible – i.e. this year. This would see a period of (subsidised) information gathering to set baselines in terms of environmental and business performance. There would then be a period of support, advice, farm planning and capital grants to equip businesses for the future.
More details of the proposals can be found at -https://www.nfus.org.uk/userfiles/images/Policy/0521%20NFUS%20Proposals%20For%20Future%20(Conditional)%20Support.pdf. The ‘Delivering Change’ document has distilled the concepts and principles from the Scottish Government’s Farmer-led Climate Change Groups (FLGs) and the Union’s own ‘Steps to Change’ proposals.
Reading between the lines of the document, there is a sense that the Union has got tired of waiting for the Scottish Government to come up with any proposals. This publication seems, at least partly, an attempt to prod the administration into showing its hand in terms of farm policy.
