Higher eco payments but tougher rules recommended for intensive farmers

Higher payment rates for intensive farms, reaching more farms through eco-schemes, and tougher rules in certain areas are among the recommendations made in a report on the lessons learned from the Green, Low-Carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).

The Department of Agriculture commissioned ADAS, an independent UK consultancy, to conduct an evaluation of GLAS and suggest improvements for future agri-environmental schemes.

The report’s findings are likely to have a major bearing on the shape of GLAS’s successor and also the pilot REPS programme that is due to be rolled out in 2021.

Most farmers in GLAS are part-time, from low-income sectors such as sheep and beef, and concentrated in the north and west of the country. Improving or stabilising farm income was the main driver for these farmers to join the scheme.

It is recommended that actions around farmland habitats and birds, such as low-input permanent pasture and traditional hay meadows, continue be focused towards these more extensive farms. To give them an opportunity to earn a higher payment, the authors suggest introducing results-based payments for biodiversity and farmland bird actions. Due to the complex and hands-on nature of such schemes, it is not envisaged that these will be widely offered but rather targeted in priority areas.

GLAS’s major fault was its inability to attract more intensive farms, particularly dairy and tillage farms in the south and east. Full-time farmers and those with higher incomes were less likely to enter GLAS.

Payments limited to €5,000 will not be enough to attract these farmers to join future agri-environmental schemes, the authors believe. Higher payment rates for those with higher returns are suggested, to reflect the greater loss of income on these farms if fields were managed as a traditional hay meadows, for example.

Livestock farmers in vulnerable or high-status water catchments could face a mandatory requirement to protect watercourses from cattle through fencing

While habitat actions are recommended for sheep and beef farms, water quality actions should be focused on for dairy and tillage farms.

The authors suggest basic cross-compliance rules should be tightened for farms in vulnerable water catchments or where habitats or birds are at risk. Livestock farmers in vulnerable or high-status water catchments could face a mandatory requirement to protect watercourses from cattle through fencing. An alternative could be higher payment rates in these catchments to encourage, rather than require, uptake.

An opportunity is identified to reach more farms, particularly those that have not taken part in agri-envrionmental schemes in the past, through eco-schemes. These will be funded from direct payments – every farm will face a choice of joining them or losing a portion of their payment. Among the suggested measures for eco-schemes are minimum tillage, catch crops, and low-emission slurry spreading. As farmers will be able to opt in or out each year, these measures are preferred as the results are delivered within a year compared to more complex biodiversity actions.

Eco-schemes could also be used to pay farmers to maintain bat and bird boxes, rare breeds, stone walls, and hedgerows planted or rejuvenated under GLAS.

To improve a future agri-environmental scheme’s contribution to climate mitigation, the reports says there needs to be an increased scale of planting of native trees, orchards and hedgerows. There also needs to be payments for farmers in commonages to conserve or restore peatlands.Getting more intensive farms to take part in fertiliser reductions actions would be beneficial too?, the report notes. The list of birds covered by the scheme should be reviewed and based on the latest population data. Actions to support pollinators on farms should also be considered.