UK lists new green incentives for farmers

THE UK government has announced a raft of changes to its Environmental Land Management schemes in a bid to encourage more farmers to sign up.

Following an announcement by the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) last week, a new “prospectus” is to be published online detailing 280 actions that farmers will be paid to deliver through an enhanced version of the Countryside Stewardship (CS) scheme, known as Countryside Stewardship Plus, alongside an accelerated rollout of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) that will add six standards to the offer.

Farmers will be able to receive payment for actions on hedgerows, grassland, arable and horticultural land, pest management and nutrient management.

About 30 new actions will be available under the new CS Plus scheme by the end of 2024, building on the 250 currently on offer. The new prospectus will detail each of the actions and will reveal, for around 275 of those arrangements, exactly just how much money farmers can expect to receive for each undertaking. Details are set to be published soon with applications opening by mid-year.

Defra said it hopes the system will clarify and simplify the schemes, allowing farmers a pick and mix approach to the incentives on offer.

“Farmers are at the heart of our economy, producing the food on our tables as well as being the custodians of the land it comes from,” Defra Secretary Therese Coffey said.

“These two roles go hand in hand and we are speeding up the rollout of our farming schemes so everyone can be financially supported as they protect the planet while producing food more sustainably.”

Elsewhere, Defra has confirmed it will open applications for the second round of the Landscape Recovery scheme within a few months to support ambitious large-scale nature recovery projects, focusing on net zero, protected sites and habitat creation.

It is hoped that groups of land managers and tenant farmers will work together to deliver a range of environmental benefits across farmed and rural landscapes.

Defra said it hopes the announcement will provide clarity and certainty to farmers, “allowing them to make business decisions and cover costs as direct payments are phased out”.

It emphasised that the plans “deliver on assurances” provided by UK Farming Minister Mark Spencer.

Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference, Spencer introduced