Farmers ‘working for green agenda’

A VIEW held by some members of the public that co-operation between agriculture and environmental protection is of a tug-of-war contest has been rejected by the European Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

“According to this image, on one end of the rope we have environmentalists pulling hard, asking farmers to do more for the environment. And on the other end, the farmers are supposedly digging their heels in, saying that they already have to do far too much,” she said.

Ms Fischer Boel said co-operation between agriculture and environmental protection is not a distant dream, but a reality that is receiving increasing support from policy. Farmers always have to co-operate with the land. Otherwise, the land may not co-operate with them, and this can cause problems for growing crops. “But beyond this, if we look at the level of policy, we’re all very often pulling the rope in more or less the same direction,” she said.

Ms Fischer Boel said a few years ago, it would have been politically unthinkable to link farmers’ direct payments to environmental standards.

But that is now being done through cross-compliance, which applies to 100% of direct payments. A large part of the €88 billion budget for rural development is also spent on environmental measures.

Ms Fischer Boel also said the environment occupies an important place in the Health Check of the CAP, now under way.