A Jurby farmer has expressed her concerns over the review of the Countryside Care Scheme saying it will put a lot of small farmers out of business.
Maureen Owens, owner of Ballagarraghyn farm, fears the worst.
She told the Examiner: ‘One clause relates to acreage payments.
‘After the historic payments finish, mine is based on the headage on stock supplied to the abattoir averaged out over three years before the scheme was introduced, then only farmers with 20 plus acres will be entitled to be paid on the acreage they farm, whether they are producing food, renting it out or just keeping it tidy.
‘My family have farmed at Ballagarraghyn since the 1890s.
‘Once the heritage payments cease I will be disenfranchised and receive no payments because I only farm 14 to 15 acres’, said Mrs Owens.
‘My payment has already decreased this year and will do so by increments until the heritage payments are phased out and only payment on acreage is allowed.
‘I believe this clause is unfair, unjustified and without precedence.
‘In the UK, land of 2.47 acres or more receives the payment,’ she added.
Ed Clague, DEFA agricultural policy manager, said: ‘The Countryside Care Scheme (CCS) replaced production subsidies with an area payment for maintaining land in good agricultural and environmental condition.
‘The CCS was one of seven steps put forward by the then DAFF in its 2008 Vision for Agriculture.
The Vision was support by all the agricultural industry representative bodies and received unanimous Tynwald support in April 2008.
‘The concept behind a minimum area claim is to differentiate between land used for commercial farming purposes and land used for a lifestyle activity.
‘Whilst this is higher than the UK, where the low level has attracted some criticism for resulting in payments to small parcels of lifestyle activity land, the larger minimum area for the CCS was set with the full agreement of stakeholder groups to target funding towards commercial enterprises.
‘DEFA welcomes the current review of agricultural policy being undertaken by the Environment and Infrastructure Policy Review Committee and looks forward to any comment it has on this or another aspect of current agricultural policy,’ added Mr Clague.