Defra opens stewardship funding for traditional orchards and wet grassland

Farmers and land managers in England can now apply for two new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier agreements covering traditional orchards and wet grassland for wintering birds, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced.

Expressions of interest opened on 3 November, according to a post on Defra’s farming blog. The two “single-focus” agreements join those for species-rich grassland and scheduled monument management introduced in July, which had already attracted more than 1,100 expressions of interest.

The rates are significant for land that often earns little from conventional production. Managing wet grassland for wintering waders and wildfowl pays £547 per hectare a year over five years, and creating a traditional orchard pays £471 per hectare a year under a ten-year agreement, according to government guidance. Maintaining an existing traditional orchard pays £264 per hectare, FarmingUK reported.

Single-focus agreements are simplified agreements that target one priority environmental action. Natural England will contact applicants within ten weeks to explain next steps, including whether a site visit is needed, and Defra stresses that an expression of interest does not guarantee an agreement. A separate form is needed for each topic, and applicants are asked to check their contact details and permissions in the Rural Payments service before applying.

Land already invited to apply for Higher Tier, or at the pre-application stage with Natural England, is not eligible. Nor is land under an existing agreement that has more than nine months left to run.

Defra said it plans to extend the full Higher Tier offer to more farmers and will give an update before expiring Higher Level Stewardship agreements come to an end. It is also running agroforestry webinars on 10 and 17 November.

The new agreements arrive as farm margins tighten, with Defra figures showing input costs up 8.6% in the year to August while prices paid to farmers fell, as FERN reported. For smaller and mixed holdings, multi-year payments for orchards and wet meadows offer a steady income stream from habitats that also shape the landscape, local food heritage and visitor appeal of many rural areas.