INDUSTRY NEWS
CAP reforms: welcome to the brighter side of ‘greening’
Ex-army Major, Carl Benfield, is Managing Director and founder of Prescient Power, a renewable energy company consulting on and installing all mainstream renewable technology for farms across the UK. His vision was to create an ethical and sustainable company, offering real energy solutions to farms and businesses reliant on fossil fuels. CAP changes are never far from any farmer’s mind at the moment and we have a pretty good idea of where the EC plans are headed and what this means for British farmers. One of the most contentious elements of the CAP reform is the greening element of Pillar 1, with indications showing that this element will make up 30% of the direct payments. We all see the need to protect diversity of our countryside, to ensure that there are habitats for our wildlife and to protect open spaces for all to enjoy - but will this come at a hefty cost to farmers? Likely compulsory areas for greening include: • Ecological Focus Areas of 5% of farmed land, which may rise to 7% after 2017 • 95% of permanent pasture maintained and having been permanent for at least five years Farmers have long been willing and competent protectors of our countryside, but with these increased environmental measures there comes a monetary value. Less cropped or stocked land means that the land is not working as hard, and so the value per hectare drops. When you are being squeezed on prices by the supermarkets, charged the earth for motor and heating oil and bombarded with unpredictable weather, these changes start to create real money worries. But there is another way... You may well lose money through the reforms, but you can earn back more than you lose through clever diversification into renewables. And you can even use your permanent pasture to do it. We call it ‘powering profitable farming’. Here are a few ideas: Install solar panels on your permanent pasture Solar panels can be safely raised up to 3ft off the ground, easily providing room to graze sheep or other small livestock around the panels. You only need to declare ineligible SPS details for the footprint of the posts, which incidentally only makes up around one percent of the total area of the installation, and grassland will grow well beneath the panels if they are installed correctly. You can even reseed with wildflower seed mix to encourage bees, create pond features to encourage wildlife or further enhance your EFAs with additional planting of hedgerows or wild areas bordering the panel fi ?????%??????????????????????????????????????????????\????????????????????????????????????????????????????]??????e????????????????????????????????????????????????????
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