Efra Committee’s CAP findings ‘supportive of farmers’

The CLA today (3 December 2013) gave its backing to many of the Efra Committee’s recommendations on the future of CAP.

CLA President Henry Robinson said that the key recommendations in a report by the Commons’ Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, known as the Efra Committee, were largely helpful to land managers.

He said: “We agree with Efra’s recommendation that the Government should maintain the current nine percent modulation rate from the support pillar to the environmental and rural development pillar of CAP and should only change to 15 percent in 2017 if it can show that additional funds are needed and these would provide clear benefits.

“We also support Efra’s backing for the continuation of ‘dual use’, which will ensure more land to remain in agri-environment schemes, and its recognition that the introduction of the three-crop rule would put an extra burden on farmers, delivering little benefit.”

However, Mr Robinson added: “We do not agree with Efra’s support for extending areas of grassland that cannot be converted under the Biodiversity Action Plan. This measure would simply add complexity and red tape.”