Farming in the Uplands - ARCHIVE: Defra

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Ev 56 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee: Evidence creating enterprises that need a properly rewarded labour force. The weakness in this situation is the lack of qualified young people entering upland farming and land management with the enthusiasm, determination and ability to undertake this dramatic change. 2.6 Working with farm colleges and universities ReedNet Uplands will identify young people who meet this specification and who are approaching the end of their general agricultural course and qualification. These students will join a group that will work on leading edge upland farming units around which they will move over a period and while doing so will identify problems and opportunities, in discussion with the farmers, needing to be researched or developed. Examples are genetics, pastoral improvement, new approaches to the use of grass, arable co-operation and the maintenance of the ecology. Other things can be added to this list such as energy and timber production and the improvement of wildlife. 2.7 Part of the ReedNet approach is to bring the links in the food chain together and this will be integral to the plan. The participants will meet auctioneers, processors, wholesalers and retailers involved in the red meat industry and as a result it is hoped new links and co-operation will increase. The “students” will also all meet up from time to time to compare notes and meet specialists in such things as animal breeding, veterinary care and grassland management. It is hoped that the participating farmers within the group will undertake basic research, problem solving and opening new opportunities. 2.8 ReedNet has limited resources and its work currently is with sectors comprised of large production units which can easily absorb additional training staV, but that is not the case in upland farming. However there are farms where a labour force of three or four does exist and where additional help is required from time to time. To work properly, however, ReedNet will require further resources to ensure the “students” are properly paid. Some of this may come from the individual farmer, some from commercial sponsorship and, we hope, some from a government source. However the financing of the project has to be arranged by Harper Adams and the Royal Agricultural College who have joint responsibility for the management of the project. From a government point of view the outcome of much needed research and development coming as part of commercial farming activities and supported by a group of young farmers has to be good return on investment. 3. Would you be able to provide any additional figures to support your statement that the number of tenancies has reduced and the number of people wanting to take them on has increased? 3.1 The table below contains figures derived from reports from the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers from its Annual Tenanted Land Survey. These figures are not specific to upland areas. However, they do show that over a 10-year period opportunities to let land both in terms of area and the number of those opportunities has declined. Net Change in area of Number of Fresh Year let land (ha) lettings 1999 61,439 664 2000 38,510 518 2001 34,246 426 2002 25,889 348 2003 6,020 216 2004 (3,049) 100 2005 (6,222) 184 2006 5,501 157 2007 6,594 150 2008 2,617 134 EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: Not to be published in full, or part, in any form before 00.01am GMT Wednesday 16 February 2011 3.2 Unfortunately, the number of individuals looking to secure an agricultural tenancy is not collected on any consistent basis. However, the TFA is aware that for every tenancy opportunity oVered in the marketplace there are always multiple applications. The TFA is also finding that there is an increasing interest in entering the farming industry and in its work with the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs there is clearly a keen desire amongst young people to be trained for seeking out those opportunities. 4. Would you be able to provide further information on this point? “I have always thought the issue of over-grazing was overstated. If you look at the cases—I do not have the figures to hand—where individuals were taken to task under the regulations for over-grazing, they were vanishingly small”. 4.1 In 2003 DEFRA conducted a consultation exercise on the Review of the Overgrazing and Unsuitable Supplementary Feeding Cross Compliance Controls in England. In a statistical annex to the consultation document DEFRA set out information about the number of overgrazing incidents dealt with by the authorities.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee: Evidence Ev 57 4.2 It recorded that between 1989 and 1996 there were 113 complaints received about overgrazing (14 a year) and in the period 1997 to 2002 there were 86 complaints (12 a year). It also recorded that over half of these issues had been dealt with either because there was no case to address or where relatively small changes in management were introduced. In only 20 cases over the full period, 1989 to 2003, were prescriptions deemed necessary—just over one case each year on average. 4.3 The TFA believes that this fits with the evidence it provided to the Select Committee that the concerns about overgrazing in the uplands, whilst important in individual cases have been overstated. 5. You mentioned an idea to re-introduce headage payments with environmental criteria, can you expand on the type of environmental criteria? 5.1 The TFA believes that grazing livestock is a basic requirement for the sustainable management of the upland environment and that it is only through the reintroduction of some form of headage payment that suYcient numbers of grazing livestock, particularly breeding cattle, will be employed on upland farms. In terms of environmental criteria, we would see that operating either through stocking rate limits or by using ceilings on payments which are in keeping with the carrying capacity of the land concerned. 6. You said, regarding Article 68: “Certainly, the criteria within which Article 68 operates need careful thought before we allow any Government to run riot through that particular piece of legislation”. Could you expand on the criteria required? 6.1 “Article 68” allows Member States to make deductions from direct payments under the Single Payment Scheme to fund other activities. The worry is that the money deducted does not have to be match funded by Member States whereas with modulation of SPS which goes to fund Pillar II activities, match funding is a requirement. There is also a worry that some of the money deducted under Article 68 will be spent on administration and therefore the benefit to the sector concerned would be reduced in comparison to leaving the money in the SPS. The TFA would want to be assured that any scheme developed for the uplands under the auspices of Article 68 is clearly in the interests of the livestock sector in the uplands, is a benefit directly to active farmers, as administered as cost eVectively as possible and does not undermine the furtherance of productive, sustainable livestock production in upland areas. 7. Do you have any views or concerns on the European Commission’s proposal for changes to LFA designations that you would like to share with the Committee? 7.1 The TFA believes that there is no justification for any alteration to the current designation of Less Favoured areas in England and Wales. 8. Do you think that the TRIG guidance is suYcient to resolve disputes between tenants and landlords when they arise? 8.1 The guidance issued by TRIG in February 2010 covering the introduction of Uplands ELS is indeed very valuable. However, it suVers from a number of drawbacks. 8.2 The first drawback is that there is no means of enforcing the guidance. Whilst it sets out good practice in context of the current legislative environment for uplands ELS, it is not legally binding and can therefore be ignored in situations where landlords wish to capitalise on Uplands ELS. 8.3 Secondly, the guidance is written in the context of landlords been able to claim that they have management control for the purposes of entry into a agri-environment schemes. As articulated in the earlier evidence provided by the TFA to the Select Committee, the TFA believes that the definition of management control should be altered to prevent landlords claiming that they are in management control when they are not in day-to-day management of the holdings or taking the business/entrepreneurial risk. 8.4 Thirdly, the guidance suVered from the fact that DEFRA was not proactive in ensuring that it was circulated to all potential Uplands ELS applicants which TRIG advised should be the case. It is a shame that given the extent of work that went into the production of the guidance that copies of it still remain on shelves in DEFRA unopened. The TFA did its best to circulate the guidance to its members but it would have been better if all potential applicants had received it from a central register. November 2010 EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: Not to be published in full, or part, in any form before 00.01am GMT Wednesday 16 February 2011 Written evidence submitted by the Country Land and Business Association Executive Summary CLA supports the way in which the CRC report depicts the importance of the uplands and successfully identifies the problems faced. The uplands matter to society because through their active management ecosystem services are provided. These include; food, landscape, wood products, energy, natural resources and biodiversity as well as leisure and tourism opportunities. However, these management systems are under threat from the low or negative
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Farming in the Uplands - ARCHIVE: Defra

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