Farmers are welcoming the Scottish Government’s Greening announcement, which will permit hedges to be claimed as part of Environmental Focus Areas (EFA) requirements and allow farmers to maintain drains on fallow. The changes to the 2018 scheme year come as part of a review being conducted by Professor Russel Griggs, who has been asked to look at improving Scotland’s Greening obligations.

“There are several very positive and hard-won changes to Scottish Government’s Greening rules for 2018 that will be welcomed by Scottish farmers,” said NFUS president Andrew McCornick. However, the news is not all positive: “One downside is the new EU requirement which bans the use of Plant Protection Products on many EFA options,” he continued.

Professor Griggs has been speaking to farmers throughout spring and summer about the impact of Greening: “I am pleased that with the input and constructive dialogue, that my group has agreed detailed implementation rules that will allow farmers to meet Greening obligations while introducing flexibility to allow them to farm successfully and continue to deliver environmental objectives,” said Professor Griggs.

The changes to the 2018 claim year also include banning the use of pesticides on EFA, along with agri-forestry being EFA eligible, cover crop date changes and green cover crop list changes. Changes include:

• Hedges must be next to arable land and not wider than three metres. This means that hedges which do not have their own parcel number are likely to be eligible, but wider ones which have been attributed their own department number might be too wide to be eligible. Each meter of hedge is worth 10m2 if claimed by one parcel of land and worth 5m2 if claimed between two parcels of arable land. There are restrictions to cultivation and fertilizer use within two metres of the hedge. Hedges can include gaps smaller than 20 metres.

• Maintaining drainage on fallow is now permitted between 15 January and 15 March. This has been welcomed as farmers often use wet fields for fallow and will now get a chance to sort persistent draining issues.

• Agri-forestry land has had to be planted under the Forestry Grant Scheme since 2015 and had been eligible for BPS as arable land.

• Further changes include the extension of the deadline to establish cover crops from 1 October to 1 November. This will help the farmers who have found getting cover crops established in October impossible.

• The list of crops which can be used as green cover has grown to include useful crops like lupins and triticale mixes, giving farmers more options.