Farmers’ tree dilemma: if we plant woodland, will we take a cash hit?
Farmers are putting off planting trees because of the uncertainty surrounding the government’s plans for subsidies based on protecting nature, delaying the UK’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and stem the drastic decline in farmland wildlife.
New farm payments are expected from 2024, under the post-Brexit subsidy regime the government has promised, but farmers fear if they plant trees now they will not get the credit for it when the new schemes start. Meanwhile, they face potentially losing their existing subsidies if they switch to more tree-planting now.
Ministers have repeatedly stressed that future payments to farmers will be on the principle of “public money for public goods”, meaning farmers will be paid for taking care of the land and wildlife, under “environmental land management contracts” or ELMs. But farmers have told the Observer there are too few details available about the expected new system, four years after it was promised by the government.
This leaves farmers in limbo. If they use land currently in food production to plant trees, they could forfeit their existing subsidies, called basic payments. Many farmers are also tied into stewardship agreements with the government, under which they receive special subsidy payments for good environmental management. But these are so inflexible that farmers cannot plant trees as this would violate their agreement.
“We are grateful for the stewardship payments, but it is difficult to change them,” said Martin Hole, a livestock farmer in Sussex. “Farmers are in a pinch. This is happening to me, and I hear it from many others. We want to plant trees, but there may be financial penalties if we do.”
Hole wanted to triple the area of woodland on his farm, but could
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