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From 1 January 2021, farmers in Northern Ireland (NI) will no longer be required to implement greening requirements, Minister for Agriculture Edwin Poots has confirmed.
The change mirrors similar announcements by counterparts in Britain, with the UK free to set its own rules around farm payments once the Brexit transition periods ends on 31 December.
In NI, the requirement to have 30% of direct payments related to greening added a lot of bureaucracy for DAERA, but for very little gain. With over 90% of the farm land in NI classed as permanent grassland, the vast majority of farmers were exempt.
Arable farmers
However, a small number of arable farmers did have to comply with two greening requirements – the three-crop rule and Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs). But again, it was a EU policy not written with NI in mind. Only a small number of farmers grow more than 30ha, so had to comply with the three-crop rule, and in 2020 the requirement was dropped after the wet autumn of 2019.
Greening has not delivered any identifiable benefit for the environment in NI
On EFAs, if a farmer had more than 15ha of crops, at least 5% of the arable area had to be an EFA. But sheughs and hedgerows counted towards the total, so it ended up being a frustrating paper exercise for most.
“Our analysis has indicated that Greening has not delivered any identifiable benefit for the environment in NI, but it does bring with it a significant administrative burden,” said Minister Poots.
Describing greening as a “failed initiative”, he said the focus will move to delivering adequately funded environmental outcomes tailored for NI.
The change means that rather than having separate Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and greening entitlement values, the two will now be rolled into a single overall BPS entitlement for 2021.
There is, however, one greening requirement that is being retained under BPS rules, and that is a ban on ploughing of permanent grassland in environmentally sensitive areas.
Scotland
In Scotland, changes have also been made to greening, but to a lesser extent than in NI.
The Scottish government has confirmed that while the three-crop rule is being dropped, other greening requirements including Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) will need to be met next year.
It means that Scottish farmers will be required to put 5% of their arable areas into options such as fallow land, catch crops and green cover.
However, Scottish Farming Minister Fergus Ewing has indicated that EFAs may change in the future, as their retention was “in the short term, subject to a wider review”.
England
In England, Defra Secretary George Eustice announced in July that greening rules will be scrapped from 2021, as it starts to transit farmers towards a new Environmental Land Management Scheme, to be fully rolled out by 2024.
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