Cross compliance and agri-environment schemes

Farmers must meet cross compliance requirements to claim payments under the single payment scheme (SPS) in England and Wales, or the single farm payment scheme (SFPS) in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The SPS or SFPS is a UK-wide agricultural subsidy scheme for farmers.

To receive these payments, and payments under some other rural schemes, you must maintain certain standards on public, animal and plant health, the environment and animal welfare on your farm. This includes conserving habitats and managing soil and water.

The standards for cross compliance are:

statutory management requirements (SMRs)
keeping your land in good agricultural and environmental condition (GAEC).

What you must do

Comply with the statutory management requirements

You must comply with the SMRs to ensure you can claim all your SPS or SFPS payments.

Even if you don’t claim payments, you have a legal requirement to comply with these rules.

The environmental legislation SMRs are:

Groundwater - SMR 2 in England, Scotland and Wales, SMR 3 in Northern Ireland: you must not discharge any pollutants to ground waters without permission from your environmental regulator. This includes washwaters, silage effluent and dirty water. See our guidance on discharges to water.

Sewage sludge - SMR 3 in England, Scotland and Wales, SMR 4 in Northern Ireland: you must comply with the regulations on using sewage sludge on agricultural land.

Nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZs) - SMR 4 in England, Scotland and Wales, SMR 5 in Northern Ireland: you must comply with regulations for using fertilisers and storing and spreading manure in designated areas at risk from agricultural nitrate pollution.

England and Wales: NVZ rules
Scotland: NVZ action programme rules
Northern Ireland: Nitrate Action Programme and Phosphorus Regulations.

Your environmental regulator could inspect your farm to check you are complying. If you do not meet the requirements for cross compliance you may not receive part or all of your SPS or SFPS payments.

The SMRs also require you to tag your cattle and have passports for them, to keep records of animals on your farm and to control diseases.

Cross Compliance: 2010 guidance documents
Rural Payments Agency: SMRs
DARD: Cross compliance verifiable standards (Adobe PDF - 220KB)
Scottish Government: SMRs guidance
Welsh Assembly Government: Cross compliance verifiable standards - guidance on SMRs and GAECs (Wales)

Keep your land in good agricultural and environmental condition

You must comply with the GAEC conditions to claim your SPS or SFPS payments. The environmental GAEC conditions require you to manage your soil and conserve habitats.

There are different GAECs for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Manage your soils

Good soil management is one of the main requirements of the GAEC conditions.

In England you must produce a soil protection review, and update it every year (GAEC 1).

In Northern Ireland and Scotland you must protect your soils from erosion and maintain the soil structure.

In Wales you must keep a soil assessment record, and regularly review the condition of your soils and land (GAEC A).

Defra: Soil Protection Review 2010 (England) (Adobe PDF - 748KB)
SPS: Cross compliance guidance for soil management (England) (Adobe PDF - 1.9MB)
Scottish Government: GAECs for soil erosion
Welsh Assembly Government: GAEC A - Soils and post-harvest management
Land and soil management for agricultural businesses

Comply with water abstraction regulations

A new GAEC requirement has been introduced for 2010, for farmers and land managers who abstract water for irrigation. If you already have a water abstraction licence you must comply with its conditions. If you abstract water and don’t have a licence, check if you need to get one in our guidance on water use and abstraction for farmers.

Guidance on GAECs

DARD: Cross compliance verifiable standards (Adobe PDF - 220KB)
Rural Payments Agency: Standards for GAEC (England)
Scottish Government: GAEC guidance (Scotland)
Welsh Assembly Government: Cross compliance verifiable standards - guidance on SMRs and GAECs (Wales)

Good practice

Agri-environment schemes

If you are a farmer or land manager and you manage your land well, you may be able to receive money from agri-environment schemes. The aims of agri-environment schemes are to:

conserve wildlife (biodiversity)
maintain and enhance landscape quality and character
protect the historic environment and natural resources
promote public access and understanding of the countryside
protect natural resources
manage the risk of flooding
conserve genetic diversity.

There are different schemes in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

England agri-environment schemes

Environmental Stewardship is the major national agri-environment scheme in England.

There are two levels in the scheme: Entry Level Stewardship and Higher Level Stewardship.

There are separate schemes for organic and uplands farms, the Organic Entry Level Stewardship and the Uplands Entry Level Stewardship. See the Natural England website for guidance on how to apply for the schemes.

Natural England: Environmental Stewardship

Campaign for the Farmed Environment

The Campaign for the Farmed Environment (CFE) is a partnership between the farming industry, farming and wildlife groups and government agencies in England. The CFE encourages farmers and landowners to take part in agri-environment schemes, and take on additional voluntary land management practices to benefit the environment.

CFE

Northern Ireland agri-environment schemes

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) in Northern Ireland runs two agri-environment schemes for farmers.

The Northern Ireland Countryside Management Scheme (NICMS) is open to farmers and land managers who take steps to improve biodiversity, water quality and soil quality, enhance the landscape and combat climate change.

The Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) supports farmers who are converting to organic production, by paying some of the additional costs that occur in the transition period.

DARD: Agri-environment schemes

Scotland agri-environment schemes

The Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) offers support for economic, environmental and social activities to develop rural Scotland. The SDRP aims to improve:

competitiveness of agricultural and forestry businesses
environment and countryside
quality of life in rural areas and diversity of the rural economy.

Scottish Government: Scotland Rural Development Programme

Wales agri-environment schemes

The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) runs Tir Gofal, Tir Cynnal, Tir Mynydd, the Better Woodlands Scheme and the Organic Farming Scheme. These are now closed to new entrants.

A new scheme, Glastir, will be launched in January 2012. Glastir will combine the five existing schemes.

If you want to take part in Glastir, you must provide an expression of interest on the 2010 Single Application Form (SAF) for the SPS. See the WAG guidance for more information on this new scheme.

WAG: Glastir - New sustainable land management scheme for Wales

For guidance on the existing schemes in Wales, see the WAG guidance.

WAG: Agri-environment schemes

Further information