1of9. Catching up on the  twitter storm on the pending E.L.M announcement. A different perspective

“BPS to 50% by 2024..”(FT and FG). That’s not news or rocket science; with 100% BPS in 2020 and 0% in 2028, where did we expect it to be in 2024? @FT @FarmersGuardian @FGAbiKay

2/9
“Income foregone“...has been the basis of all Ag env schemes since including the dizzy heights of 52k farmers in ES covering 70% of English Farmland in 2015.”Income foregone” is a misnomer. It is actually Gross Margin foregone, less costs saved plus costs incurred. #johnnix

3/9 IF  has some overhead costs allowances inbuilt.  It is a question of where IF is pitched according to average performance. Do we even know when we are average, better or worse?  #becnhmarking @TheAHDB

4/9 Ag Env schemes have, and do spend £m’s on capital works, it’s not all about IF. Many farms have restructured or improved with these and many environments benefitted #CSF @theriverstrust

5/9 E.L.M will be voluntary and contain incentives to do different things. It’s not a right, nor a distant EU ring fenced fund; it will be competing against other public spending pressures. #brexit #SpendingReview @FFC_Commission

6/9 E.L.M will stand or fall as any other farm enterprise based on how its fits with farming systems. BPS delivers a margin of c:95% to invest elsewhere where farms choose; E.L.M is to invest in environmental land management, it isn’t a direct support subsidy. #ELM

7/9 The big mistake is to think E.L.M is to replace BPS. It won’t. It’s using previous BPS funds to do different things. The big issue is the withdrawal of BPS and the impact of that on those sectors most reliant on it, not whether E.L.M is income foregone based. @JoeWStanley

8/9 The food self sufficiency/BPS debate is a slight distraction. The most efficient and innovative sectors such as pigs, poultry and hort have an insignificant reliance on BPS, dairy coming in close behind. #horticulture @m19mao

9/9 E.L.M launch in 2021 is a pilot, operating without EU constraints and x compliance anomalies. Let’s not damn it before it starts; work with it to shape it and shape farm businesses to work with it. #farming @FarmingUK @JanetHughes