Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Irish Government on its plans to reintroduce a subsidy on the import of forage and bedding; and what assessment he has made of the effect of such a subsidy on the supply of forage and bedding within the UK.
Answered by George Eustice
Farmers in the UK, Ireland and across northern Europe have experienced a difficult time this year with the hot, dry weather. The impacts are likely to be most severely felt by the grazing livestock due to the shortage of grass.
It is clear that the main impact of the recent drought conditions is likely to be felt by livestock farmers facing a shortage of fodder and that the full extent of the impacts may not be realised until later in the year. We have prioritised practical solutions to help farmers increase access to fodder and bedding both now and in the coming months. These actions will help farmers to limit the impact of extra feed costs by allocating land to forage growth and grazing, but we will keep the situation under review.
Particular measures the Government has taken to help farmers are:
We have clarified that English farmers, unlike farmers in other EU countries where derogations have been sought, have been able to use fallow land for grazing since 1 July. That is because our legislation reflects what we consider to be the minimum EU requirement.
We were the first Member State to raise a concern with the Commission to establish Ecological Focus Area (EFA) catch crops by 20 August: Other Member States agreed with us and the Commission agreed that “force majeure” would apply in these circumstances, so we could waive penalties for farmers in this situation.
We are seeking a derogation from the requirement to sow only certain seed types which are unpalatable to livestock in EFA areas as catch crop. The derogation we expect to secure this week will allow for grass and herbaceous forage to be grown in those areas, and those areas to be grazed.
On Countryside Stewardship, Environmental Stewardship and forestry legacy agreements farmers are able to ask Natural England to agree a temporary variation to the agreement conditions, either as an Environmental Stewardship Derogation (to date, over 100 have been granted) or a Countryside Stewardship Minor and Temporary Adjustment (over 30 have so far been granted).
I will monitor whether the fodder import scheme that has been introduced in Ireland has an appreciable effect on supplies of fodder and bedding within the UK. We have also made the point to the European Commission that whilst the UK is committed to working to identify appropriate responses to this year’s weather impacts, these should not interfere with the normal functioning of the market or obscure the focus of farmers in mitigating weather impacts.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has plans as a result of extreme weather conditions to instruct the Rural Payments Agency to make advance payments or bridging loans to farmers who will not have received their 2018 BPS by 31 December 2018.
Answered by George Eustice
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is fully focussed on getting Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 2018 payments issued promptly. Given the prescriptive EU requirements in making advance payments, RPA will concentrate on making payments from the opening of the payment window in December. In addition we are reviewing options, such as bringing forward bridging payments, for those BPS claimants who will not have received their BPS 2018 payments in December.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to contribute to the UK's Voluntary National Review of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals to be presented in 2019 at the High Level Political Forum of the United Nations.
Answered by George Eustice
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Secretary of State for International Development PQ 146233.