Rural Payments and Services

New Greening information for 2016 is now available on Rural Payments and Services.

The main changes are the introduction of an ‘Equivalence scheme’ and some alterations to existing Greening requirements.

The Scottish Government has sought approval from the European Commission to implement a Greening Equivalence Scheme from 2016. If this is approved, the Scheme will contain all existing Greening requirements and exemptions and two additional elements which are: a voluntary alternative Crop Diversification requirement and a compulsory inclusion of a Nutrient plan for permanent Grassland (full details are in Annex K).

Other changes for 2016 include alterations to the rules on Ecological Focus Area (EFA) nitrogen fixing crops and associated EFA field margins, acceptable crops in the Green Cover mix to include Clover and Radish, changes to EFA field margins and buffer strips and requirements to submit a map for EFA features with your 2016 SAF.

We have also issued a news release announcing this which you can read here.