CAP agreement 'could hit small farmers'
The latest agreements by MEPs on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy could have negative consequences for the UK's smaller farmers, according to agricultural accountants.
MEPs recently agreed a negotiating position on the CAP which included making limited environmental measures mandatory.
The NFU welcomed the fact that the commission's 'ludicrous proposal' to set aside 7% of land for Ecological Focus Areas (land reserved for nature), was slashed to 3% by MEPs.
However Friends of the Earth said the changes do not go far enough in enshrining environmental measures, while they have complained that large industrial farms would continue to receive the vast proportion of the subsidies, while small farmers would find it harder to survive.
Paul Laird, a director at The Fish Partnership, said: "It was particularly interesting that MEPs voted for a CAP which gives 80% of the €40 billion annual budget to large farms and only 20% to small and medium-scale farms which form the bedrock of the UK agricultural sector, particularly in Buckinghamshire.
"This is particularly damaging for their prospects, which coincides with poor summer and autumn harvests due to the wet weather which has reduced yields and raised feed prices.
"Furthermore MEPs failed to support any of the amendments which would have taken away the need for farmers, who have already undertaken environmental commitments, to embark on further greening requirements.
"This will only cause further financial outlays for already struggling farmers. MEPs could have done more."
The new deal means that all parties can move towards the goal of reaching a final political deal on the CAP at a Council of Ministers meeting scheduled for June 24 and 25.
NFUS President Nigel Miller said: "Some significant flexibility has been won on the Commission’s original greening proposals that mean many of our original concerns may now have been resolved as long as these wins remain in the final agreement as it is hammered out between the Irish Presidency, the EU Parliament and EU Commission. The concerns we had for Scottish livestock farms have in most cases been resolved but there are still serious worries about the extent to which most Scottish arable farmers will be hampered.
"The reduction of the ecological focus area to 5% is welcome, as is the agreement to permit equivalent greening measures as an alternative option to the three greening measures, but the impact of the crop diversification rules remain significant for many cereal farms. NFUS has already drawn up and circulated a proposal for Scottish cereals growers to adopt practices, such as precision farming, that would produce less carbon; this could actually help cereal farmers while satisfying the EU Commission’s equivalence requirements.
"These proposals taken, together with the agreement reached in the EU Parliament, move us a step closer to a final text and take us to a far better place than was the case with the original Commission proposals."
