Over 300 farmers across the UK have signed a letter to Conservative MPs urging them to continue the roll out of the environmental land management scheme (ELMs) which is currently under review.
The scheme, which is a set of subsidies that looks to replace the current EU common agricultural policy is under review, despite originally due to go ahead this year.
If the policy is to go ahead, which is expected to be decided on within the next seven days, this will see farmers paid for acts including preserving biodiversity or creating wildlife habitats.
Sent to 148 MPs, the letter coordinated by farmer movement, the Nature Friendly Farming Network said: “We were promised agricultural policies that would make our farms the standard bearers for quality, sustainability and profitability.
“Returning to old, inefficient and inequitable subsidies like the common agricultural policy – which do not reward good practices, but merely enrich those with the largest areas of land – would be a poor use of public funds, and wholly against the direction of travel within the sector.”
Under the previous CAP system, small farmers lost out to big agriculture as in part, payments were allocated by the amount of land being cultivated. However, a new system is set to come into play from January.
This backlash also comes as hundreds of current environmental laws protecting wildlife, habitats and river quality are also set to be scrapped by December 2023.
The letter added that “a thriving natural environment, healthy soil and a stable climate are vital conditions for productive and profitable food production.”
