Firms, farmers and charities call for ‘decisive action’ on agriculture payments

The Government is being urged to provide ‘vision, clarity and detail’ on the new Elms scheme.

The Elms payments cover England and will replace the EU regime for agriculture where subsidies were mostly on the basis of the amount of land farmed (Emily Beament/PA) (PA Archive)

Supermarkets, banks, farmers and nature groups have called for more ambition and “bold, decisive action” on new wildlife friendly agriculture subsidies.

In a joint statement, organisations ranging from Tesco to WWF warned that farmers and land managers urgently needed “vision, clarity and detail” on the roll out of the new environmental land management scheme (Elms).

The Elms payments, which cover England, will replace the EU regime for agriculture where subsidies were mostly on the basis of the amount of land farmed, with a system paying farmers for “public goods” such as clean water, wildlife habitat, healthy soils and access to the countryside.