Will The Farmers Get Paid, If They Plant Woodland?

Farmer’s are rescheduling planting trees due to the uncertainty of the government’s plans regarding protecting nature and postponing cutting off the greenhouse gasoline emission.

New farm funds are anticipated from 2024, which is beneath the post-Brexit subsidy system. It is a new fund that the government has promised to all the farmers. But the farmers are now in a big dilemma, that if they plant trees now they might not get the money of the new scheme. Besides, they will face their existing subsidies they plant more trees now.

Though, the government is giving assurance that every farmer will receive the fund on the law of ‘public money for public goods. This means all farmers will get paid for taking care of the country’s wildlife that comes under ‘environmental land management contracts.

Farmers do not entirely trust the whole thing because there is not much detailed information available about the scheme.

Now it has created a big mess and left all the farmers halfway through the process. If they use the land from food production to plant bushes they might get ineligible for the present subsidies. Not only is this, but a lot of farmers are also tied into the stewardship agreement with the government. Therefore shifting to different farming would be violating the agreement.

An arable farmer from the south of York, Richard Bramley, who is also a member of the National Farmers’ Union that as there is not much information about the scheme available right now that is why the farmers are not getting the courage of changing the plantation.

Planting trees require capital and time; hence it makes a permanent difference.

A sheep farmer in south Snowdonia has planted 1 kilometer of hedgerow with a fence pole. It has cost him £3 each and £30 for every corner. Other than that cost of 7000 saplings were needed along with the labor charge. So the whole process is extremely expensive. Though it is a long-term project and has a decent profit.

‘We’re getting mixed signals’ said Martin Lines, chair of the Nature-Friendly Farming Network. He even added, ‘The government needs to give us more reassurance’.

A spokesperson stated, ‘By taking up grants such as the England Woodland Creation Offer now, farmers and landowners will be able to transfer into future environmental land management schemes at agreed points without having to repay their current funding’.

Ben Raskin said that the ministry should work a little faster and confirm the agreement to the farmers as soon as possible. It is a quite complex matter and a long-term issue, so they should not make the farmers wait until there is a perfect term coming up.