English Defra has released details of phase one of the National Pilot of the ELMS by releasing early details to be tested in the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). The SFI are one of the 3 programmes that will be replacing Basic Payments in the Agricultural Transition Plan over the next 7 years.
The first round of simple standards for the SFI have been published in Annex 1 of this document and farmers have been invited to make expressions of interest by April 11th for taking part in piloting
This first set of standards are quite basic with a number of critical gaps. As you will know, the Landworkers’ Alliance has been represented on ELMS engagement group and been regularly inputting into these standards – yet this engagement comes with no guarantee that we will get everything we have been asking for.
However, we have been told that the standards will be enhanced in the future to fill in gaps and ensure that all farms and all sectors will be able to benefit from ELMS payments if they deliver public goods. We need your help ensuring that the standards they roll out meet the needs of agroecological farmers, foresters and land workers.
There are 3 critical problems that we that have noted in phase one of the SFI:
1) The standards for horticulture are not fit for purpose.
Through the Horticulture Test and Trial managed by Landworkers’ Alliance we have been working with horticulturalists of all scales to determine a better system for rewarding horticulture. The Fruit and Vegetable Alliance has sent this letter to the ELMS team urging them to create a better system to reward horticulture.
2) Small Farms below 5 ha are not eligible for Phase 1 of the national pilot.
The Landworkers’ Alliance will soon be launching a campaign encouraging government to ensure that small farms are rewarded for the high density of public goods per hectare they deliver.
3) There are no measures that specifically pay for organic farming, pasture-fed livestock and agroforestry.
Sustain has published a policy paper encouraging Defra to stick to their commitment to rewarding whole farm management systems.
Additionally, there are important gaps we would like to see recognised in Phase 2:
- Public engagement
- Agro-biodiversity of plants and native livestock
- Orchards
- Hedge laying
The other ELMS programmes, called Local Nature Recovery (LNR) and Landscape Recovery (LR), will pick up many of these themes. However, the LNR and LR will be competitive with limited funding and we would still like to see these actions rewarded in the SFI so that they can be accessed by more farms.
We are calling for your input into our proposals for what these standards should look like. We particularly need input about the standards to reward agri-biodiversity. This includes diverse heritage seeds, fruit trees, arable crops and pulses.
Please contact jyoti.fernandes@
The themes are: horticulture, small farms, organics, pasture-fed livestock, public engagement, agroforestry, agro-biodiversity, orchards, hedge laying
We must all continue to challenge DEFRA to create a scheme that is accessible for all farms and which also delivers the aspirations of the 25-Year Environment Plan, Carbon Net Zero, and the premise of ‘Public Money for Public Goods’ in the Agriculture Act 2020.
