The Rural Bulletin: 27 July 2017

Gove’s ‘Green Brexit’ plan receives mixed reviews

Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, has announced farm subsidies will have to be earned in future – gaining a mixed reaction from key UK agricultural bodies. 

As part of Gove’s “Green Brexit” plan, farmers will only receive payouts if they agree to protect and enhance the environment – though overall payments are set to stay at the same level until 2022.

While the NFU stressed the importance of remembering the value of home-grown food as politician’s debate subsidies, The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) have agreed with the need for reform and have launched a plan for a land management contract.

As well as the redistribution of public money to benefit farmers, this new policy should also boost new private and public investment to help the farming sector increase opportunity in global markets.

“The debate has moved from “how should we reform farm subsidies?” to: How are farmers going to be fairly compensated for the products they provide to a market that will not pay?” said James Shepherd, associate at Knight Frank.

Grain surge expected when weather clears

The wet weather has paused harvest activity over the past week, however with many crops ready to cut grain store managers are expecting a surge in deliveries when the weather dries up. 

Winter barley looks good in Lincolnshire, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire, with positive yields and quality reported. However, these areas have only seen a very small percentage of the expected crop so far.

Fraudsters target farm businesses in latest invoice scam

Farmers are the latest victims of a new type of scam involving invoice redirections. Fraudsters are disguising themselves as a farm’s supplier network and generating emails claiming its bank account and sort code details have changed – leading to farms unknowingly pay outstanding invoices into the scammer’s account.

Individual cases have seen losses of around £30,000, with many losing much more. Farmers are warned to be vigilant of any suspicious activity.

UK to follow EU-ban on neonicotinoids

Michael Gove also announced in a speech last week that Britain will follow EU ban on “bee-harming” pesticides. The UK government policy on neonicotinoid pesticides will be in line with existing EU protections and scientific evidence on the declining bee population, when it comes to decision making on the ban of three neonicotinoid pesticides that have been linked to bee deaths.

The existing neonicotinoid ban is estimated to have cost UK farms £18.4m last year.