Welsh Farmers reminded of changes to CAP payment system
Farmers in Wales will have recently received a letter from the Welsh Government reminding them that, from January, their direct payments will be made through the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).
Farmers in Wales will have recently received a letter from the Welsh Government reminding them that, from January, their direct payments will be made through the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).
The new BPS will replace the Single Payment Scheme and will include a new ‘greening’ requirement aimed at protecting the environment and will provide extra funding for younger farmers aged 40 and under looking to come into the industry.
The BPS entitlements will be based on the farming area and reducing scale of historic payments held under the current system for a five-year period so that by 2019 payments will be based solely on the amount of eligible land occupied by each farmer. All farmers in the same payment region will then have the same rate per hectare. The three payment regions are Moorland,Severely Disadvantaged Areas and Disadvantaged areas /Lowland.
Welsh farmers will have a choice of Ecological Focus Area (EFA) options to include fallow land, hedges, stone walls, short rotation coppice, afforested land and land used for nitrogen fixing crops as part of their five per cent EFA requirement.
However, a significant proportion of farms in Wales are expected to satisfy the greening credentials on the basis of more than 75 per cent of the claimant’s eligible area being in grass,and any remaining arable land is 30ha or less.
On the ‘Active Farmer’ requirement, ‘agricultural activity’ will be defined in ways that set high standards of activity to encourage claimants to either work the land themselves or to rent the land to someone who will work it and claim the CAP payments. Where more than one person wishes to claim on the same parcel of land the person who can prove they are undertaking the farming activity and has the land at their disposal will be granted the entitlements.
A regional reserve will be set up for each of the three regions in Wales which will be used for Young Farmer top ups and exceptional circumstances. The Young Farmers Scheme will be paid on eligible hectares up to a maximum of 25 ha.
“Rural Payment Wales has been writing to farmers in Wales advising them of their provisional payment regional classification and they will have 30 days to make representations about a payment region,” explained Eifion Bibby of Davis Meade Property Consultants.
“Representations must put forward a case, objectively stating why the land should be reclassified and be supported by evidence such as photographs.
“If after first consideration the land is not reclassified, the claimant will have a further 60 days to commission and supply a technical report on the quality of the land in question, to be undertaken by a suitably qualified person. That report, along with the original and any further evidence, will then be considered by an independent expert panel comprising a joint representative of the farming unions and stakeholder bodies, an academic, and a technically trained Welsh Government official,” he added.
For further details on the new payment system or land classification contact DMPC at Colwyn Bay on telephone 01492 510360, email eifionbibby@dmpcuk.com or the Oswestry office on 01691 659658.
Read more about CAP changes in the upcoming August 2014 edition of Farming Monthly…
