2017 BPS Guidance

DEFRA has launched a new ‘page’ on its website for the 2017 BPS Scheme Year; https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bps-2017.  However, at the moment it is not very helpful.  The latest news just reports that the European Commission has not yet confirmed the Greening rules which will apply for the 2017 Scheme Year.

With OSR drilling for next season well underway and cropping plans decided months ago, this is concerning.  DEFRA has said there are no major changes planned, but it does not know what minor alterations will be introduced.  Ordinarily, the Greening Guidance should be available now, but DEFRA has said it will be included in the 2017 BPS Scheme Booklet.  This will not be published until early 2017.

The changes that could be brought-in are part of the so called ‘simplification’ exercise being undertaken by the EU Commission; meeting a pledge made by EU Farm Commissioner Phil Hogan.  But not all of the proposals would be classed as ‘simplification’.  As our article of 19^th July reported, the three basic Greening rules of Crop Diversification (CD), Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) and retention of Permanent Pasture will still apply.  We also know that DEFRA has not requested a change to any of the current EFA features, so the same ones as last year are expected to apply i.e fallow, hedges, buffer strips, green cover/catch crops and nitrogen fixing crops.  In all there are 15 changes proposed by the EU, but perhaps the ones which could have the most impact are:

• to prohibit the use of pesticides on all EFA land.  This would mean EFA nitrogen fixing crops (e.g beans) would not be able to receive the normal agrochemical applications
• increasing the minimum width of EFA buffer strips from 1m to 2m.  This would then be more than the 1m cross compliance strip
• increasing the minimum EFA fallow period from 6 to 9 months
• increasing the minimum EFA catch and cover crop period to 10 weeks.

The changes to EFA nitrogen fixing crops, in particular, are significant and we will report further once we have new information.  In addition, there was the option for the EU to increase the EFA requirement from 5% to 7% in 2017, but this is now looking unlikely.  It is possible that, if a decision is not made soon, the EU might have to delay the implementation of any changes until the 2018 BPS year.  However, there is no formal cut-off date for this.