News story

RPA helps farmers by providing guidance on greening rules 2016

Updated guidance on EU greening rules has been published

• From: Rural Payments Agency and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 29 September 2015

This was published under the 2015 to 2016 Cameron Conservative government

Updated guidance on EU greening rules to help farmers applying for Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments in 2016, make their ‘greening’ calculations has been published.

The rules cover three areas – crop diversification, Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) and measures to maintain permanent grassland.

Update for 2016

The key changes to the greening rules are :

• oilseed radish can now count (as part of a mix) as an EFA catch and/or cover crop
• some EFA features can now be up to 5 metres away from arable land, rather than immediately next to it

Which farmers are affected?

• farmers with 10 or more hectares of arable land need to follow the crop diversification greening rule
• farmers with more than 15 hectares of arable land must also follow the EFA greening rule
• farmers with less than 10 hectares of arable land do not need to do anything differently – they automatically meet the crop diversification and EFA rules
• farmers who apply to the Basic Payment Scheme with permanent grassland must follow the permanent grassland greening rule

Published 29 September 2015