BHIC response to rural development consultation

 BHIC has responded to DEFRA's consulation on the future Rural Development Programmes.

'We wish to make some general points in response to the consulation.  Throughout the document DEFRA refers to “improving the competitiveness of the agricultural and forestry sector’. The whole of  Axis 1’s proposals for the programme is based on the agricultural and forestry sectors.  We believe it is vitally important that DEFRA starts to regard, for rural development purposes, the use of grazing land and agricultural-type activity on rural land within their currently inflexible definition of ‘agricultural activity’.

We would like to see the new programmes start to mirror the changes coming from Europe by instead referring to rural land-based  or agricultural-type, or farming-type activities. The European Commission continues to publicly state that horse breeding, for example,  is a quasi-agricultural activity and we believe this should be mirrored in the potential grant aid available to landowners or farmers who wish to raise horses.  

The horse industry is a growing industry in the UK. It is worth £3.4 billion a year. DEFRA’s themes of enhancing the environment, making farming(type)  activities more competitive and sustainable, and enhancing opportunities in rural areas, are all themes in which the horse industry can play a significant role.  With a horse population of around one million and growing, this represents a significant portion of rural land use in the UK. For example, the average land grazed by each horse is one hectare, and the 2004 DEFRA estimate of grassland is 6,865,000 hectares, this would suggest that horses graze more than one seventh of the grassland in the UK.  With this in mind we believe that it is not sufficient to relegate such a large quasi-agricultural activity, which has many of the attributes of livestock farming, and which covers so much of our countryside, to the same importance to the environment and rural economy as someone who wishes to start up a rural shop, or small cottage business. – Our industry is labour intensive, providing all round employment, and is responsible for large acreages of countryside.  

For the purposes of the Rural Development Programmes we believe it is essential it is allowed access to funds to help maintain our countryside and land, and that DEFRA not impose an arbitrary constraint on the ability to propose innovative and successful projects which will be of great benefit to the rural economy and environment. The Single Farm Payment and its availability to landowners in England who have land grazed by horses has set an important and welcome precedent. Therefore we would wish to see the language of the Rural Development Programmes refer wherever possible to agricultural-type activities.' 

 

May 22nd, 2006