Petition demands increased entry for upland farmers into higher tier schemes

In an open letter to environment secretary Thérèse Coffey, Cumbrian farmer James Robinson has called out policymakers for overlooking upland areas in higher tier payment schemes and leaving farmers in those places without adequate financial backing to deliver nature and climate outcomes.

Mr Robinson, who is the vice chair of the England steering group at the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN), said the government’s new agricultural policy is not helping upland farmers with far fewer of them being able to access higher tier agreements than previous years.

He claims successful applications to these schemes have plunged by an alarming 80% in the space of a decade.

Mr Robinson is now demanding a comprehensive financial package that will enable farmers to transition to a greener way of working. His petition was signed by over 400 supporters within a day of it going online, demonstrating the urgent need for change.

“The uplands are being overlooked despite the government’s bold claims to offer more support for nature-friendly farming,” Mr Robinson said. “In areas like mine up here in Cumbria, many have been left behind.

“Many farmers I know who have applied to these schemes this year with an appetite to do more for nature on their land have been denied access, and there are loads more who haven’t even bothered applying because they were expecting to be rejected.”

Mr Robinson called for schemes that provide a real financial backing to the farming transition and support farmers in their efforts to protect nature. He argued that upland and marginal farms have a potential to make a big difference when it comes to boosting nature, combatting biodiversity loss and tackling climate change.

In his letter to Ms Coffey, Mr Robinson acknowledged higher tier schemes offer a decent level of payment coupled with flexibility and advice. However, he added farmers who missed out on payments were “bitterly disappointed”, a situation he describes as “unacceptable” as it risks putting upland farms out of business at a time of crisis in the industry.

The open letter demands increased access to ambitious land management schemes such as the Higher Tier of Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery to allow a minimum of 3,000 agreements to be created per year, so farmers can deliver the best outcomes for their land.

Vicki Hird, head of Sustainable Farming at Sustain, commented: “It’s abundantly clear that most of the public want to see effective and sufficient government support for farmers in the transition to nature friendly farming and that they recognise this will help in adapting to climate change.

“This means supporting those farmers now, who are already willing and able to make changes, not leaving them without help.”