16/06/14: AHDB/HGCA assessment of the impact of greening to combinable cropping farms

From January 2015, farms will have to adhere to the new ‘greening’ requirements of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

AHDB/HGCA has examined the impact of greening on combinable cropping farms based on information available to date. The main findings are as follows:

• The introduction of Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) represents the biggest potential cost to farms. Farms can prevent a ‘worst case scenario’ by taking land from the poorest performing crop out of production, at a cost of £21-£37/ha depending on crop rotation. The cost can also be mitigated by introducing nitrogen-fixing crops, which could reduce the impact to between £2-£10/ha.

• Crop diversification rules for combinable cropping farms will have, on average, a low financial cost to farms but some farms will be significantly impacted.

• There are other costs associated with complying with crop diversification requirements, such as increased time spent managing the farm business, which are difficult to quantify.

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