Farming in the Uplands - ARCHIVE: Defra

More documents

Recommendations

Info

10 Farming in the Uplands 3 An integrated strategy for the uplands Defining the uplands 17. Many of our witnesses set out compelling descriptions of the special and unique nature of upland environments, their communities and their farmers. The NFU referred to the “unique challenges and opportunities uplands areas face”, 34 and George Dunn, chief executive of the TFA told us that: The uplands are unique in a number of aspects: they are physically remote from the rest of the country; the climatic conditions are variable and quite extreme; they are economically remote and tend to be hard places from which to make a living; and the opportunities are very narrow in terms of what you can do with the land. 35 Mr Paice gave a similar analysis—he considered the uplands and hill farming different due to the climate, remoteness and landscape difficulties and associated restrictions on forms of farming. 36 18. Although there is general agreement about their attributes and characteristics there is no statutory definition of uplands. The CRC had “struggled” with the question of defining the uplands, and, like Defra, took the pragmatic approach of relying, in the main, on the Less Favoured Areas (LFA) boundaries to define them. 37 Professor Shucksmith considered that a definition of the uplands would be useful for the Government for formulating policy and developing an uplands strategy but the CRC acknowledged that such a definition would need to be sufficiently flexible to encompass the diversity of the upland areas. 38 The NFU and Country Land and Business Association (CLA) seemed content, from the agricultural point of view, with the use of LFA boundaries to define uplands, as did the Minister. 39 Mr Paice told us that “...when we refer to ‘the uplands’, we tend to mean the areas called the Less Favoured Areas. It’s not an absolute precise term, but it’s fairly close and the one we tend to work to”. 40 EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: Not to be published in full, or part, in any form before 00.01am GMT Wednesday 16 February 2011 19. Some 2.2 million hectares of land in England are currently classified as LFA. Of this, 1.8 million hectares is in agricultural production (this is approximately 17% of the total agricultural land in England). The LFAs are further divided into two distinct classifications: Disadvantaged Areas (DAs) or Severely Disadvantaged Areas (SDAs). For the purpose of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) Less Favoured Areas are subdivided into: English moorland within the Severely Disadvantaged Areas (SDA); English SDA non-moorland; and, English non-SDA. Moorland is specially disadvantaged due to higher altitude, harsher 34 Ev 62 35 Q 71 36 Q 170 37 Q 4, Burgess, Shucksmith 38 Q 5, Shucksmith, Q4 Burgess 39 Qq 99, 164 40 Q 165
EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: Not to be published in full, or part, in any form before 00.01am GMT Wednesday 16 February 2011 Farming in the Uplands 11 climate with a shorter growing season, low soil fertility, difficult topography, and remoteness. 41 20. For the purposes of its inquiry the CRC defined the uplands as ...an area focused on, but not exclusive to, the Severely Disadvantaged Areas (SDAs). To capture the majority of upland communities, and to broaden the range of datasets available to our Inquiry, we have chosen to include some areas of upland fringe, defined as those areas designated as Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) in England (with the exception of the Isles of Scilly). 42 The CRC went on to note that the descriptors ‘disadvantaged’ and ‘less favoured’ were used by the European Commission to describe an area’s agricultural potential and that they “...do little to convey the value of the uplands”. 43 The somewhat convoluted formulation of the CRC’s definition indicates the difficulties in defining the uplands. The CRC’s definition also relies upon the European Commission’s classifications for LFAs and SDAs that were created to enable farmers across the whole European Union to receive payments under the Common Agricultural Policy to compensate for specific disadvantages in those areas. 21. We consider the uplands landscapes and communities to be sufficiently exceptional and distinct to merit particular attention from Government. We recommend that Defra revisit the question of setting out a statutory UK or England-specific definition of ‘uplands’. A clear, statutory definition would assist the department in targeting policy and data collection. Such a definition might use a similar classification to those currently used in European regulations to define Severely Disadvantaged Areas and Less Favoured Areas. A Natural Environment Bill, which may arise from the anticipated Natural Environment White Paper, may provide an appropriate legislative opportunity to create a statutory definition for the uplands. 22. In April 2009 the European Commission published its proposals to change the way Less Favoured Area (LFA) status (renamed Areas of Natural Handicap, or ANH) is to be awarded. Under the proposals the current criteria that assess socio-economic handicaps, such as remoteness from a market, would be replaced by ‘biophysical’ indicators, such as climate and soil conditions. 44 Dr Clark expressed concern about the impact of the reclassification exercise on farmers in LFAs. 45 He said that: I want to see Defra identifying the criteria needed to define upland areas and less favoured areas where there is a natural handicap, as the Commission are talking about them, and making sure they are suited to the UK climate, not just a central European one which is the current approach that the European Commission takes. 46 41 Ev 76 42 High ground, high potential, page 26 43 High ground, high potential, page 26 44 ‘EU confirms plans to reform LFA support’, Farmers Guardian, 21 April 2009 45 Q 99 46 Q 116
Page 1 and 2: House of Commons Environment, Food
Page 3 and 4: House of Commons Environment, Food
Page 5 and 6: Contents EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: No
Page 7 and 8: Summary EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: Not
Page 9 and 10: EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: Not to be p
Page 13: EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: Not to be p
Page 39 and 40: 5 Upland communities EMBARGOED ADVA
Page 47 and 48: 6 Conclusion EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY
Page 49 and 50: 4: A new approach to funding EMBARG
Page 59 and 60: Witnesses EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: N
Page 61 and 62: Oral evidence Environment, Food and
Page 63 and 64: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Page 65 and 66:
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Tom Blenkinsop Richard Drax George
Page 79 and 80:
walked they ain’t coming back, be
Page 81 and 82:
great, but there is the wider issue
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
to engage in a conversation with th
Page 95 and 96:
Q161 George Eustice: One of the com
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Written evidence Environment, Food
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: Not to be p
show all

Farming in the Uplands - ARCHIVE: Defra

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?