Approximately 80% of European farmers surveyed on greening said they would not be ready to implement further environmentally focused methods of production under the current level of CAP support.

The results come as part of the European Commission’s public consultation on how greening rules, agreed in the CAP 2013 reform, had worked in practice in the first year.

There were 3,304 responses to the survey, which ran from 15 December 2015 to 8 March 2016, 82% of those were from farmers, 4.2% from professional farm organisations and 1.5% from environmental NGOs. Green direct payments account for 30% of EU countries’ direct payment budgets.

The majority of farmers said the implementation of greening requirements was difficult. Over 80% said they needed more time to fill out the aid application in 2015 because of greening, and nearly 60% said they needed to employ professional services to do it.

Farmers said crop diversification improves soil structure, reducing the need for agro-chemicals, but that it forced farmers to modify farming systems to grow unprofitable crops not suited to conditions. Similarly for Environmental Focus Areas, farmers said nitrogen-fixing crops fertilise the soil and reduce fertiliser costs, but that the price of seeds were higher and it forced farmers to plant crops for which there is little demand.