Farmers may need a rethink on impact of rule changes
Farmers planning their autumn cropping should be aware of recent changes to the greening requirements for the 2018 scheme which may mean that they will have to re-think their Ecological Focus Areas.
As part of the greening requirements under the Basic Payment Scheme farmers are required to manage five per cent of the total arable area as Ecological Focus Areas.
These can include fallow land, hedgerow management, buffer strips, grass margins, catch and cover crops and nitrogen fixing crops. There have been amendments to the rules for EFA buffer strips and field margins. The EFA buffer strip option adjacent to or within 5m of arable land with a minimum width of 1m next to or parallel to a watercourse will be extended to include field margins.
This means that any field margin, not just buffer strips adjacent to a watercourse which have a minimum width of 1m and a maximum width of 20m, could be eligible as EFA under this option.
Secondly, rules have changed for EFA Catch and Cover Crops. Areas under EFA catch or cover crops must be maintained for a minimum period of eight weeks. This is already met in England with a 15 week period set for EFA cover crops, but this will be a new extended period for EFA catch crops to meet this new eight week requirement. EFA catch crops must be established by August 20, 2018, and retained until at least October 14, 2018.
The most significant change relates to nitrogen fixing crops. There has been a ban on plant protection products (PPPs) on EFA fallow land, catch and cover crops and nitrogen fixing crops. PPPs may not be applied on any areas of fallow, catch/cover crops or nitrogen fixing crops being used for EFA from BPS 2018.
The current understanding is that this ban will apply for the life cycle of the crop for nitrogen fixing and catch/cover crops and for the EFA fallow period of January 1 to June 30 for fallow areas. The European Commission has not yet confirmed how this ban on the life cycle of a crop interacts with the crops being planted this autumn, when the rules do not apply until January 1, 2018. It is assumed that the ban also applies during the period from when the crop is sown up to December 31, 2017. It is likely that this ban will also apply to seeds which are treated and dressed prior to sowing.
With this in mind many people will now re-think whether to use nitrogen fixing crops and we will therefore need to re-work their EFA requirements.
Paul Madeley, Madeleys chartered surveyors
