§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on progress being made on the introduction of new entry level schemes for environmental support. [168792]
§ Mr. MorleyEntry Level Stewardship (ELS) has been developed in response to recommendations made by the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food. The ELS is intended to tackle countrywide environmental problems such as diffuse pollution, loss of biodiversity and landscape character and damage to the historic environment. A pilot scheme has been running in four areas of England since February 2003, and an evaluation of these pilots has confirmed that the scheme is popular with farmers and has the capacity to deliver widespread environmental benefits.
Following the success of the pilot, Defra intend to launch Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) as part of a new agri-environment scheme called Environmental Stewardship in early 2005. Proposals for the new scheme have recently been submitted to the European Commission for approval. It is proposed that the ELS should be open to all farmers in England and that they 335W will be paid at a flat rate of 30 per ha in return for carrying out a certain amount of environmental management options across their whole farm.
A parallel Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS) is proposed, which will have the same design as the standard Entry Level Scheme but would be tailored towards organic farming systems. It is proposed that organic farmers will receive a higher payment rate of 60 per ha, in recognition of the contribution that organic farming systems make towards increases in soil health and fertility, benefits for biodiversity and wider landscape benefits.
Entry Level Stewardship and its Organic equivalent will be complemented by Higher Level Stewardship, which is designed to build on the basic Entry Level in order to deliver significant environmental benefits in targeted high priority situations and areas. Further information on Environmental Stewardship will be available once Commission approval has been received. Final details of the new Scheme will be made available immediately prior to the launch in 2005. Application packs will not be available until the launch of the Scheme.