NFU fears government to renege on modulation contract

Agri-Environment, CAP greening and food security are on a collision course for crisis, raising NFU fears that government is about to renege on its 2002/3 modulation contract with farmers.

That agreement, which saw monies from farming’s CAP payments switched into public goods, provided the Treasury would match fund it, is in severe jeopardy, NFU president Peter Kendall said on Wednesday morning at Cereals.

“At the moment it looks like government is about to renege on its previous agreement with farmers. We need to be honest and have a deep and far reaching discussion about this.

“We are at risk of never-ending increases in modulation, because NGOs continue to paint such a negative picture, yet the environment is improving massively. We need a new dialogue, because at the moment it looks like government is about to renege on its previous agreement.”

His fears are understood to be shared by the CLA, with a joint NFU/CLA meeting with Caroline Spellman being sought. “As an industry we need to nail our colours to the mast on this.”

Electronic grain passports by next April, a fight for the return of licensed stubble burning and stricter stewardship of blackgrass herbicides through tighter product labelling were also raised by NFU combinable crops board chairman Andrew Watts and chief arable adviser Guy Gagen (stories to follow soon).

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