Basic payments scheme to farmers in Wales to end

Improving biodiversity, meeting carbon goals, and improving air quality will all help farmers obtain the new annual payment.

"We want to put sustainability at the heart of our future support, balancing the needs of current generation with our obligations to the next," Lesley Griffiths, Wales' minister for environment, energy and rural affairs said in a statement today.

The switch forms part of the Welsh Government's response to its 'Brexit and our Land' consultation, held with Welsh farmers between July and October 2018.

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Ms Griffiths said: “Last year, we carried out one of our largest agriculture consultations on how we support Welsh farmers and land post-Brexit. We had strong and wide ranging responses and I am extremely grateful to everyone who engaged in the discussion."

She added: “Reflecting on the consultation responses, I am proposing a new single sustainable farming scheme, allowing us to explore economic, environmental and social opportunities at the same time.

“We will propose an annual payment to farmers in return for the environmental outcomes delivered on their farm – targeted at reversing biodiversity decline, meeting our carbon budgets and hitting our clean air targets.

“The responses to the consultation highlighted the production of food and the production of public goods can go hand in hand.

"In many cases, the same action, done in the right way, can contribute to both outcomes.

"We want to pay for these environmental outcomes. In this way, we can support sustainable food production."

Welsh farmers will be able to transfer their basic payment entitlements to the new scheme before 2021.

The new scheme will be explored in more detail in a forthcoming consultation, published in advance of this year's Royal Welsh Show (July 22-25).

In response to the announcement, NFU Cymru president John Davies said: “While we welcome the minister’s recognition that sustainable food production can go hand in hand with the delivery of public goods, the devil will be in the detail."

He added: “NFU Cymru has always maintained that the basic payment scheme has been an essential tool in protecting farmers against volatility as well as providing safe, high quality, affordable food for the consumer. Any new scheme must offer equal, if not superior, benefits."