Default Greening for Scotland

Scotland will apply the default EU greening rules in 2015, Rural Affairs Secretary, Richard Lochhead, has announced.  In the Implementation Plan published in June, it was stated that a ‘winter cover’ alternative to the Crop Diversification rules would be investigated, as well as a fertiliser plan on permanent grassland.  The Scottish Government has yet to receive approval form the EU Commission to these ‘equivalence’ measures so has abandoned them for 2015.  The administration aims to press for their inclusion in 2016.  This means that, for 2015 at least, those growing a limited number of crops (e.g. malting barley producers) will have to abide by the ‘three-crop rule’.