To farmers from England will be paid to take care of the floors starting next year, when the first stage of new government support payments begins under the Sustainable Agriculture Incentive (SFI).
And this is because soils are a vital store of carbon (soil carbon storage), but after larges decades of intensive plowing and the use of chemicals, much of Britain’s soils are in really poor condition. For instance, the soil organic matter in the UK is estimated to have decreased by 50% in the last 60 years, according to Future Food Solutions.
However, environmental groups (Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and National Trust) criticized the measures as insignificant and accused ministers of failing to deliver on their promises to use the UK’s exit from the EU to strengthen environmental protections and reduce the damaging impacts caused for agriculture.
Farmers will receive between £ 20 and £ 58 per hectare in England for basic measures to protect and nurture their soil, and almost all farmers are likely to be eligible to apply for the payments (subsidies), which cover bare soils on arable land in winter.
In theory, this policy wants to continue the old CAP, when farmers received between £ 2 and 3 billion a year. However, the subsidies were initially held at £ 2.4bn a year after Brexit, but will be reduced to £ 900m by the end of this parliament.
Some of the measures that farmers will have to take in exchange for payments would remain routine for many farmers, who must ensure that these measures prevent erosion and runoff, ensure that fields are covered with a crop that can return the nutrients to the normalcy.
From the CONSOLE project we want to know your opinion…
Do you think the British government’s measures are enough?
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