NFU president Peter Kendall has slammed the 'utter madness' of the European Commission's three-crop rule, saying it “will not add a jot to food security in England and Wales.”
The controversial rule change, which comes in as part of a shake up of the Common Agricultural Policy, obliges growers wanting to claim EU funds to plant three different crops in their rotation. It forms part of the 'green' focus of the revamped CAP.
“Farms have developed efficient, profitable crop-rotation systems,” said Kendall. “Farmers will also be forced to take crops out of production. The NFU will push the EC on both of these issues.”
His views echo those of NFU horticulture board chair Sarah Dawson, who described the three-crop rule as 'nonsensical' and 'a case of bureacracy gone mad.'
Farming minister George Eustice said he believed the three-crop rule was 'not the right way forward for the CAP and we [Defra] opposed it.' He added Defra's negotiation team had secured some concessions including raising the threshold to 10ha before the rule kicks in, as well as some flexibilities for different parts of the UK.
Kendall, who steps down as president of the union following this week’s NFU Conference, made food security a theme of his opening address at the event.
“One of the NFU’s achievements has been getting food security onto the agenda and keeping it there,” he said. “Government policy should be seen through the food-security lens.”
Kendall stressed that key to food security was allowing growers to use the crop-protection products they needed to produce the nation’s food. “If crop protection products are safe, they must be approved,” he said. “Our food supply depends upon it.”
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