Farmers on peat soils will be offered the option of rewetting land in a new measure within the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) later this year.

The Government’s 2025 Climate Action Plan, published on Tuesday, states that rewetting actions will be introduced as an option in ACRES co-operation areas by September, in a bid to woo farmers into cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the land use sector.

The new measure will “actively facilitate blocking peat drains where that is appropriate” and the area targeted will be “ultimately led by farmers’ willingness to engage”, the plan outlines.

It says there are 180,000ha of peat farmland in ACRES that have been habitat-scored, in addition to 420,000ha of commonage land.

Reduce emissions

The plan also targets autumn 2025 as the deadline for developing and funding schemes to further reduce emissions from the land use sector. This will be achieved through what the Government calls “reduced management intensity of grassland on drained organic soils” and “improved grassland management”.

The Climate Action Plan’s reference to new ACRES landscape actions comes as over 7,600 farmers still wait for payments for last year’s ACRES.

Of these, 1,850 are still waiting for payment for the 2023 scheme.

The plan also commits to the publication of an action plan for reducing age at slaughter before the second half of this year and exploring “industry measures” to increase the uptake of protected urea.