Rethink on cash for stewardship
Rethink on cash for stewardship
WILDLIFE-FRIENDLY farmers, who say they have been excluded from the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, may be in line for cash help, junior farm minister Elliot Morley has hinted.
At present funding priority is given to projects to reinstate lost or damaged environmental features. But in an announcement to the House of Commons Mr Morley suggested that a review of the scheme in 2003 could reward producers who have already improved habitats.
Mr Morley made the announcement in response to a question by Lib-Dem agriculture spokesman Colin Breed.
Mr Breed was highlighting the treatment of brothers Roger and Philip Hosking (News, Jan 19). The brothers have created a wildlife haven on their farm at Modbury, South Devon, but their application for stewardship payments for their 60ha (150-acre) Ley Coombe Farm was recently turned down for the second time.
Mr Breed asked: "Does Mr Morley agree that the focus on paying for improvements in standards, rather than standards themselves, has real disadvantages for conscientious farmers?
"Would not such farmers be better off if they had bulldozed their hedges, ploughed up their pastures, filled in ponds, and then applied for funds to repair the damage?"
Mr Morley conceded that Mr Breed had a point. "It is true the priority of the scheme is to reinstate lost habitats and introduce features that have been lost."
He accepted that farmers who had kept important environmental, wildlife and landscape features were at a disadvantage owing to the way the scheme worked.
Afterwards, Mr Breed said: "I was delighted the minister acknowledged there was a problem. It clearly is a nonsense.
"I only hope the Hosking brothers will eventually see the rewards they deserve for all their hard work." *