THE majority of North-East farmers will be breathing a sigh of relief following the longawaited announcement from Defra on greening measures.

Introduced as a part of CAP reform, the majority will see payments unaffected by the new greening measures.

The greatest impact will be felt by those holding recent Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) agreements created since January 2012.

Under the new rules, all farmers in England with more than 15ha of arable land must set aside five per cent of their arable acres as an Ecological Focus Area (EFA), or risk losing up to 30 per cent of their direct subsidy payments.

This five per cent land area can be left fallow, put into buffer strips, catch or cover crops, nitrogen fixing crops (including peas and beans) or used for hedgerows, but farmers must choose from these options to comply with the new greening measures.

Those with Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements, no matter what date they commenced, will not see their payments adjusted for greening, neither will those with ELS agreements made pre-January 2012.

For the few with ELS agreements who find themselves caught in the post-January 2012 gap, payments will be reduced where double funding applies, even for those with an organic option.

These farmers face two main options. Either they can add further ELS options to their existing agreements where there is conflict with their greening obligations in order to meet their requirements and thus maintain payments, or they can close their ELS agreement early, without penalty, and start again.