Farmers will be paid per hectare to look after habitats under scheme

Farmers will be paid hundreds of pounds per hectare for maintaining habitats under a scheme that replaces the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

Environment Secretary Steve Barclay yesterday announced increases in rewards for farming that helps the environment.

This includes the amount paid for maintaining grasslands, wetlands and scrub rising from £182 per hectare to £646.

Payments also include £765 per hectare for lapwing nesting plots, or £1,242 per hectare for connecting river and floodplain habitat. 

The changes, announced at the Oxford Farming Conference, are part of reforms that ministers hope will see 60 per cent of food eaten in the UK produced domestically, and 30 per cent of the natural environment restored by 2030.

Mr Barclay said: 'We have listened to farmers' feedback and set out the biggest upgrades to our schemes since leaving the EU… whilst also protecting the environment.

'We're also making it easier for farmers of every farm type and size to enter the schemes.'

But National Farmers' Union vice president David Exwood warned: 'We have more questions than answers around the deliverability of these options.'