UK Agricultural Policy Post-Brexit Editor: Will Melling Writers: Bence Borbely, Trevor Chow, Tom Nott, Yang Zuo
productivity has been low in the UK, and agricultural output has increased by 0.8% a year compared to the average of 2% per annum in developed countries, productivity growth has been almost at a plateau since the 1990s.27 The government has introduced a number of measures aimed to tackle this productivity problem. In the past, they were organised under the Countryside Productivity schemes, which ranged from providing small grants of £3,000 to £12,000 for buying new equipment to farm productivity grants that began at a minimum of £35,000.28 Similar programmes have been announced in the Agriculture Act such as the Farming Investment Fund. 29 However, the productivity measures are not the focus of our paper. The paper focuses on the second of the two government aims, promoting ‘public goods’ through regulation and subsidy. It may be the case that some of the proposed measures, for instance our proposals for increased selective breeding to increase milk and beef yields, may have the knock on effect of increasing productivity however this is a side-effect as the aims are focused on sustainability.
1.3.2 The Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) The scheme that will put the ‘public money for public goods’ principle to practice is the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS). This will be the focus of our paper all discussions below will be related to the ELMS proposed scheme and areas that there could be room for improvement. The ELMS functions by administering subsidies for public goods, ranging from environmentally friendly land and water management or cultural and natural heritage preservation to soil quality and genetic diversity or agricultural productivity. For all of these goals, the program splits them into three tiers, “providing standards all farmers must meet, whilst also providing options for them to deliver additional benefits”.30 • • •
Tier 1 is given for environmentally sustainable agriculture and forestry practices, relating to smaller changes that all farms can achieve and be rewarded for. Tier 2 aims at locally targeted environmental outcomes, which will likely involve cooperation between different land managers at important locations. Tier 3 is to help support land use change at a landscape scale, often targeted at environmental commitments like nature recovery and net zero target – in this way,
Rohit Kaushish, ‘UK agricultural productivity fails to keep pace with global trends’ (2015) <https://www.nfuonline.com/cross-sector/farm-business/economic-intelligence/economic-intelligence-news/ukagricultural-productivity-fails-to-keep-pace-with-global-trends/>, accessed 21 December 2020 28 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, ‘Rural Development Programme for England Countryside Productivity Scheme’ (2018) <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/761059/Impr oving_Farm_Productivity_handbook_v2.pdf>, accessed 3 January 2021 29 DEFRA, ‘Government unveils path to sustainable farming from 2021’ (2021) https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-unveils-path-to-sustainable-farming-from-2021 30 DEFRA, 'Environmental Land Management Policy discussion document' (DEFRA, 1 February, 2020) <https://consult.defra.gov.uk/elm/elmpolicyconsultation/supporting_documents/ELM%20Policy%20Discussion %20Document%20230620.pdf> accessed 4th January 2021 27
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