A year today the Entry Level Stewardship Scheme (ELS) was launched by DEFRA as one of the first new Agri-Environmental Schemes under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS).

ELS pays farmers £30/ha over both farmland and woodland areas subject to the farmer offering 30 points per hectare of environmental value which can be achieved through various ways such as positive hedgerow management

To date only 50 per cent of farmers that registered for the SPS last year have requested an ELS application from the Rural Development Service (RDS). Of the 60,000 applications requested, 13,500 agreements have been issued, covering 1.6 million hectares of land. This means that only 22 per cent of farmers have been able to capitalise on this opportunity.

Mark Woods, Farm Business Consultant of Strutt & Parker says “this is not that 78 per cent of applications have been rejected, as entry is guaranteed, rather it is the extreme difficulties farmers have had in getting accurate maps from the Rural Land Registry (RLR).

“The mapping process has been a nightmare so far, however, I would urge farmers and landowners to persevere with the agri-environmental schemes, not just ELS but also the Organic Entry Level Scheme (OELS) and the Higher Level Scheme (HLS) (please see notes to editors) as these schemes now form such a crucial part of a farmer’s potential income.

“They are the most tangible way for farmers to recover the money being taken away through modulation cuts, which are forecast to increase from 10 per cent to 30 per cent over the next seven years.

We have calculated that the average size of holding to have been entered into the ELS so far is 119ha. We believe this is because smaller units have more easily remedied any mapping problems but they have also been able to see very easily how an agreement can be set-out to meet the environmental criteria without detracting from income earning potential from the farm. To conclude I would like to urge all farmers with big, medium or small holdings to recognise the potential of these schemes and shelter their businesses from future subsidy cuts, which today seem inevitable”.