Covered in the Guardian

Farmers will be eligible for funding for up to 280 actions that protect environment under new system

Guardian comment: New farm subsidies regime could be great for nature – if properly funded

Farmers in England will be able to receive government funding for up to 280 different actions that protect the environment, from conserving hedgerows to maintaining peatlands, under a comprehensive overhaul of farming subsidies.

The long-awaited announcement on Thursday shows farmers what will be expected of them if they apply for government incentives called environmental land management schemes (ELMs), worth £2.4bn a year for this parliament.

Farmers welcomed the announcement for providing clarity on the new payment plans, which have taken five years to draw up and are a post-Brexit replacement for the EU common agricultural policy (Cap).

Unlike the Cap, which provided farmers incentives based mainly on the acreage they farmed, the overhaul is meant to reward farmers for protecting nature and improving the environment. But critics warned that big arable farmers were still likely to reap the biggest rewards under the new plans, with meagre pickings for small farmers and those in difficult environments, such as upland and moorland regions.

Rates of payment for most of the 280 measures were set out in a 101-page document. The payments cover nearly every aspect of farming and are aimed at helping farmers to become more environmentally sustainable, use less insecticide and reduce pollution and other impacts on the natural world while producing more food.

Payments will vary widely depending on the actions farmers undertake. For instance, farmers will be paid as much as £537 a hectare for creating fenland out of lowland peat and £1,920 a hectare for maintaining land to produce fruit to organic standards, down to £22 a hectare for assessing soils and £10.38 for establishing a skylark plot.

Some are broad – £22 a hectare for adding organic matter to soil, or having green cover on at least 70% of land over winter – and some detailed, such as £120 to £150 for maintaining sphagnum moss to capture and store carbon.