It is probably fair to say that many in the NI farming industry looked on in horror as details of the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) in England were revealed in 2020.

The replacement for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), ELMS has been designed to pay farmers for improving the environment, with little recognition of the fact that most farmers are in the business of producing food.

To help fund ELMS, English farmers saw BPS money cut 5% in 2021, with payments down 20% this year and due to be reduced by 35% in 2023 when compared to a 2020 base year. The last BPS money is to be paid out in 2027.

Yet it was only in mid-2022 that farmers were able to apply for the first scheme under ELMS. The Sustainable Farming Incentive has started out with fairly low payment rates, including a starting point of just over £11 per acre for improved grassland. The other two schemes – Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery are still in development.

However, it now looks like the new Truss Tory-led government has had a rethink around the timing of all these schemes, with some suggestion that area-based payments (similar to BPS) might be retained into the future.

That has been welcomed by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), who have consistently argued that the pace of change away from BPS is too rapid, especially given the slow rollout of replacement schemes.

But the NFU position has drawn plenty of criticism from various environmental groups, who increasingly seem to be divorced from reality on farms.

Given where input costs are at, and the pressure this is putting on food production, an announcement by the Truss led government that it is “reviewing” farm policy is probably the least controversial thing it has said and done so far.

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