Farmers could 'trade, land to meet EFA targets

摘要

Farmers could be allowed to keep their Dest land for food production and "buy in" less productive land to fulfil CAP reform proposals, under radical plans being discussed by EU policy makers. The forthcoming changes to the Common Agricultural Policy will require farmers to set aside at least 7% of their eligible farmland as fallow, excluding permanent grassland, under so-called ecological focus areas (EFAs). European farm commissioner Dacian Ciolos has insisted that the EFAs must be in place on farmsover 20ha from 2014, under "mandatory greening" measures. Critics fear that introducing EFAs on a farm level -rather than a regional or national basis-would mean the arbitrary creation of protected zones, which may not be good for wildlife. DEFRA has already called for a "more flexible approach". Farmers in the UK and other member states are concerned that the greening obligation will take large areas of arable land out of food production.