RPA changes need to cut out waste
I AM glad that after five years of incompetence the Rural Payments Agency will finally be reviewed and overhauled.
Agriculture minister Jim Paice has made it plain that he is not prepared to brush the problem under the carpet like the previous government.
The RPA hands out more than £2.3billion of often late and incorrect farming payments every year and has been fined more than £280million by the EU for its inefficiency. All this in spite of £304million being spent on extra staff since in 2005.
For South West farmers the Rural Payments Agency is infamous for its waste and incompetence. The new Government needs to cut costs, streamline the process and get the payments to farmers on time and for the correct amount.
The EU Common Agricultural Policy reforms are due in 2013 and we need to ensure that we have a process and system able to meet the challenges of the agricultural sector into the future.
Ashley Fox
Conservative MEP for the South West
2 Comments
by Will, Mid Devon
Monday, July 26 2010, 3:41PM
“That should read "most members of the public are unaware of the rules".”
by Will, Mid Devon
Monday, July 26 2010, 3:40PM
“Perhaps an overhauled RPA will be able to identify and penalise those farmers who flout the environmental cross-compliance rules with which they are supposed to comply in exchange for their annual subsidy. The average farmer receives £16,000 or more per year - and big landowners receive vast sums because it is area-based - in exchange for which they are expected, for example, not to cut hedges (including roadside ones) between 1 March and 31 July (the bird nesting season), not to cultivate pastures older than 15 years without consent, and not to plough,spray or apply fertilizer right up to the bottom of hedges or the banks of ditches. In Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (which cover much of Devon) they are expected not to apply slurry on waterlogged and/or sloping ground and not within 10 metres of a watercourse, and not to apply any at all during a "closed" season in the winter. These rules are regularly flouted by a significant minority of farmers because the RPA cannot afford the staff needed to adequately monitor compliance, and most members are unaware of the rules - and probably wouldn't want to tell tales on their neighbours anyway.”