DEFRA’s new CAP powers

After meeting with EU ministers, DEFRA secretary Owen Paterson can now force English farmers to join a new agri-environment scheme to collect their Common Agricultural Policy Greening Payment.

Mr Paterson said he had secured the concession “so that England can avoid the costs and confusion of parallel schemes by greening direct payments entirely through its own national scheme”, but farmers fear they will not have the right to access the full range of greening options at EU level.