The government has released details of its Sustainable Farming Incentive which could see farmers up and down the country rewarded for sustainable farming practices.
Since leaving the EU, the government has sought to work out a replacement to the Common Agricultural Policy and has now revealed the first details of its new plan.
The government claims that the new scheme will support approaches to farming that revolve around protecting the environment and will include actions to improve soil health, hedgerows and integrated pest management.
In the example included on the Gov.uk website, farmers across the country could be paid to manage and plant hedgerows or to provide year-round food, shelter and breeding cover for birds and insects, as well as taking actions to boost the levels of organic matter in soils.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive is one of three separate schemes that the government hopes will help to ensure the sustainability of British lands and is currently being piloted.
It states that information on the other two schemes, which it calls Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery, will be shared later on in the year.
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The three schemes will look to reward both farmers and land managers that produce public goods like biodiversity, cleaner water, cleaner air, improving soil, and carbon reduction on their land.
The scheme is also being touted as a way in which the country's farmers and land managers can help the nation tackle the issue of climate change and reduce carbon emissions in order to hit its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
The government also claims that its Sustainable Farming Incentive is designed to deliver a renewed agricultural sector that will produce healthy food for consumption both at home and abroad and ensure that farms can be profitable and economically sustainable.
Trials of the scheme have already included around 3,000 farmers and land managers and focus on testing different aspects of the initiative such as management plans and payment methods.
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Environment Secretary and MP for Camborne and Redruth, George Eustice, said: "The ethos at the heart of our future policy is to support the choices of individual farm enterprises.
"The Sustainable Farming Incentive will support the environment and promote animal welfare.
"It will reward approaches to farm husbandry such as encouraging integrated pest management, improving soil health and enhancing hedgerows.
"Assets that were previously dubbed ‘ineligible features’ will finally have their value recognised and rewarded.
"I would encourage farmers to engage in this pilot to help us design the new scheme."
To express interest in the pilot, farmers will need to complete an online form and meet the following eligibility criteria; are a recipient of the Basic Payments Scheme, registered on the Rural Payments Agency system; enter land parcels (fields) into the pilot that do not have an existing agri-environment agreement on them; have management control of the land for the duration of the pilot; own the land with management control or have a tenancy of enough length to implement their pilot agreement (including landlord’s permission if required); enter land parcels that are in England; enter land parcels that are not common land.
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