Direct Payments to Farmers (Crop Diversification Derogation) (England) Regulations 2020

Lord Carrington Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Carrington (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as a farmer and landowner, as set out in the register.

While welcoming the belated decision to abandon the three-crop rule, for many farmers it was too late, as seed had been bought and other input costs incurred in order to comply with the rule. However, this unfortunate episode allows us to draw lessons which should apply to consideration of the Agriculture Bill. In particular, we need to closely look at the clauses governing intervention in agricultural markets. As drafted, intervention largely depends on events which result in actual or threatened market disturbance resulting in reduced prices. What happens if a farmer can neither plant nor harvest due to weather conditions or some other event, but prices rise rather than fall? No intervention can then apply, although the farmer may have nothing to sell. This seems illogical. Both are business risks.

Agricultural consultants Andersons currently predicts a loss due to weather conditions on arable farms of £27 per hectare, before the BPS for the harvest of 2020. Without some form of support in extraordinary circumstances, farming is on a knife-edge. I urge the Minister to look again at insurance in such circumstances, the cost of which could be borne by both farmers and government.

Finally, in an industry with so many risks—environmental and market, to name just two—how can famers plan for the future and make necessary investments to reorder their business when the full details of the reduction of current BPS payments over the transition period, and any details, including all-important cost and financial return information, on the new environmental land management schemes, are still unavailable? Does the Minister recognise the urgency?