Living in an English-speaking country is a big disadvantage when it comes to understanding CAP reform, according to Jeremy Moody.
At a meeting in Dunblane Mr Moody, secretary of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, said: “Although the regulations might appear to be in English, native speakers of the language should beware. The words might look English but the meaning is in many cases completely different. They are what is known as Eurospeak.”
As an example he quoted the words ‘active farmer’. This might be imagined as someone with dirt under their fingernails who feeds animals and drives a tractor, but the EU regulations can take a very different interpretation which would exclude such a person from the new Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).
“This is a problem because fitting the active farmer criteria is fundamental to gaining entitlements. Someone with 3,000 acres might fail the test or, even worse, might pass one year but not the next.
“One reason for failing might be not maintaining what is known as ‘naturally kept land’ at the minimum level.
“Imagine a coastal dairy farmer with 300 cows intensively using the best section of the farm, but with over 50% of the land under his control in unmaintained salt marshes. He would fail the test and join the ranks of the undeserving,” Mr Moody warned.
Those seen as undeserving of BPS would join the “negative list” which included airport land and railway land. It would also, however, include ‘permanent sports and recreation ground’. “Will this include equestrian facilities?” asked Mr Moody.
“On the other hand someone with another occupation, say a libel lawyer, could still be seen as an active farmer. To be seen as deserving, agricultural activities have to be seen as ‘not insignificant’ but we need to know far more, and we need to know it now.
“We are going into this blind, and it will be no fun for a farmer to be spat out of the system in 2016 when the 2015 forms are checked, or caught out by an EU audit in 2018 and have to pay money back.”
Mr Moody voiced frustration that the Scottish Government was so far behind the other UK administrations and Republic of Ireland in deciding how to implement the new CAP. Farmers would soon be ordering autumn seeds, and this would dictate the all-important crop diversification for next year.
Mr Moody’s audience comprised members of the Scottish Agricultural Arbiters and Valuers Association and Agricultural Law Association and to say they were ‘all ears’ would be an understatement.
There will be good business to be had for professional advisers and, as yesterday’s conference wore on, it became ever more clear that avoiding all the pitfalls in the new CAP will be hard for farmers to do without paying for advice.
Mr Moody’s colleague at CAAV, Alice de Soer, reminded the delegates that once the existing Single Farm Payment entitlements had been used to trigger 2014 claims they would “disappear in a big puff of smoke”.
The Scottish Government would then need to issue a fresh set of entitlements to the new BPS.
“England went through this process in 2005 and emerged deeply scarred. I hope you fare better.
“The starting point for farmers will be their 2013 SFP application. This is the so-called ‘golden ticket’ to the new scheme.
“In 2015 you will apply for new allocation of entitlements, and the number granted should equal the eligible hectares in 2015.
“It won’t be possible to ‘stack’ the claim on a smaller area, and every eligible hectare will need to be declared. Then that will be the fixed number of entitlements available to the business unless there are sales or transfers.
“The ‘golden ticket’ is the entry to the game, and it is vitally important to retain your 2013 status.
“Dissolution of partnerships, for example, could cause problems.”
There would be remedies for those who had lost their ‘golden ticket’ or who had not
made a claim in 2013.
Providing evidence of active farming that year might suffice, or an application to the National Reserve.
Entitlements could be bought or land could be let to a tenant who was eligible.
BPS entitlements would possibly not be transferable until 2016 and could only be transferred within the payment region to which they had been granted.
There would be no ability, for example, to transfer higher value entitlements from the arable and grassland region to the rough grazing region as there had been with the old scheme.