Welsh farmers will need tree cover on at least 10% of their land in return for payments from the new Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS).

The Welsh Government’s proposal for the new scheme is a three-tier system of options and payments under 'universal', 'optional' and 'collaborative' categories.

The universal tier is mandatory and has 12 actions that every farmer who applies to the SFS must comply with to receive cash paid at a flat rate per hectare.

One of these is tree cover – a minimum one tenth on every farm – but it includes existing trees.

In a document outlining its proposals, the government sought to reassure farmers on this.

“Although this may sound like an approach which will require a major shift in farm management, we want to support farmers to plant more hedges, shelter belts and trees in field corners as well as establishing woodland at field scale on land which has low agricultural and habitat value,’’ it says.

Habitats on at least 10% of the farm will also need to be managed and enhanced or new ones created to achieve that figure.

There will be compulsory benchmarking with a set of sector specific and industry level key performance indicators (KPIs) with the government confident that it will lead to a “step change’’ in farm performance.

  • Bare fields over the winter will be banned – multi-species cover crops will have to be grown on all uncropped land.
  • Biosecurity also features with compulsory wash stations and secure feed stores required.
  • Every farmer will need to have a programme of regular soil testing and to record and report its pesticide use.

But some farms could be exempt from some of these mandatory actions.

In setting out its proposals, the government says it understands that some farms may not be able to deliver the full range of universal actions from the outset, because of farm type, topography or land management contracts.

“Exemptions may therefore be in place, but our starting position is that farms in the scheme should undertake all universal actions,’’ it says.

For farmers who want to bump up their payments there are a series of targeted actions set out in the optional tier.

These include mob grazing, covering slurry stores, drying poultry manure and growing crops that reduce a farm’s reliance on bought-in feed.

Farmers could also be paid for having a three-metre wide fence and hedge along the farm boundary to prevent contact with neighbouring stock and for committing to isolate all incoming animals for at least six days.

The collaborative actions are targeted at groups of farmers working together to deliver ‘public goods’ at a landscape, catchment or national scale – for instance improving water quality.

The government insists the actions set out in the universal tier will help farms become more sustainable.

It also suggests that they should be “within reach of most farmers’’ and can be integrated into current farming practice.

“The scheme is designed so all farm types can access it, including tenants and those with rights to common land,’’ it says.

The government plans to retain its flagship Farming Connect programme to deliver training and knowledge sharing.

Rural affairs minister Lesley Griffiths says the SFS offers “a real opportunity for positive change’’ that will “help the sector prosper’’.

“We will be engaging with the sector during the next stage of co-design before consulting on the final proposals next year,’’ she says.

“I have always said I want to work with our farmers to ensure this Scheme works for them and our nation.”

As for the payment rates, farmers will have to wait until the final scheme goes out for consultation in 2023 but the government suggests they will provide a “fair and stable income’’.

Payments could be capped though to “ensure that funding is distributed in a fair way’’, it adds.

The government will now embark on the second phase of the SFS co-design.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales says that the proposals are ‘on the right track’ but that numerous concerns existed around some of the detail.

“The proposal that 10% of all farms should comprise tree cover will be a major concern for many farmers for whom this would mean losing a large proportion of their productive land, and there are also concerns as to how this would impact on tenants,’’ says its president Glyn Roberts.

“There are also some farms, such as in exposed coastal areas or those in designated areas, where meeting this obligation would simply not be possible.”

Meanwhile NFU Cymru expressed concern that payment rates have not yet been published, which made it “impossible’’ for farmers to consider how the scheme would support their business.

“We are clear that the scheme must deliver at least the same level of stability for farm businesses, the supply chain and our rural communities as the current arrangements do,’’ says its president Aled Jones.