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While BPS continues until 2027, from 2024 onwards it will be a ‘de-linked' payment, based on what was paid during the reference period of 2020 to 2022, with the amount to be scaled back each year.

BPS scheme

H&H Land and Estates said land agents across the country would be breathing ‘a collective sigh of relief' at the ending of the scheme which, along with its predecessor the Single Payment Scheme had ‘dominated our lives for two months every year since 2005'.

David Morley, H&H Land and Estates environment and conservation manager, said they had submitted an average of 420 BPS claims a year, which provided an income many farms would find difficult to replace.

"It has not all been good news, though. Payments for simply owning or managing land have allowed inefficient businesses to survive and have provided nothing in the way of environmental benefits," he said.

"For tenant farmers, BPS has often been passed almost directly to landlords in the form of higher rents. Moreover, possibly the most damaging legacy of BPS support is that it has allowed farmers to sell their produce for arguably less than it was really worth.

"This has meant that consumers perhaps no longer readily understand the true value of the food they buy in the supermarket."

Environmental schemes

Looking to making up the shortfall, Mr Morley highlighted Countryside Stewardship as one option, but said while payments had been recently increased they were ‘nothing like enough to make up for the loss of BPS'.

The other new scheme is the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) which pays farmers to manage soils through a soil management plan and a regular programme of soil testing.

"However, the introductory level of SFI pays only £28 per ha on improved grassland and £22 per ha on arable land, perhaps only 10 per cent of what BPS once paid. And SFI is incompatible with most Environmental or Countryside Stewardship scheme options."

Mr Morley said farms which had already embraced environmental schemes could do little more to offset the loss of BPS.

"The Government needs to address this urgently and properly reward farmers for the environmental goods they provide to society at large," he said.

He added if not businesses faced a ‘stark choice' between trying to generate more income outside farming or intensifying production.