THE Government is being called on to protect the future of farming after data revealed more than a 30 per cent reduction in the amount of land in the Yorkshire Dales National Park under an agri-environment agreement since 2015.

Agri-environment agreements enable farmers and land managers to farm in a sustainable way that supports and enhances natural capital assets such as biodiversity and landscape quality, as well as air, water and soil quality amongst others. The decline in agreements is not just a potential environmental problem, but it may also have an economic impact on the local communities living in National Parks.

In the YDNP, there were 151,850 hectares of land in the scheme in 2015. Today’s figure is 105,625 hectares, a reduction of 30.44 per cent.

North Yorks Moors has seen a reduction in take-up over that same period of 31.03 per cent, while the Lake District has seen a reduction of 17.61 per cent.

The only national park to buck the trend is Northumberland which has seen an increase of 1.09 per cent.

National Parks England has devised a three-point plan which it says will secure the continued security and productivity of farm businesses as they transition from Countryside Stewardship - the current set of agri-environment schemes - to the new Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS).

The plan suggests extensions to existing Higher Level Stewardship schemes that are delivering against the 25 Year Environment Plan, a review of the Countryside Stewardship scheme to make tier options more attractive propositions with a clear focus on delivering public benefits, and the inclusion of all national parks in a planned pilot scheme for ELMS. NPE says this would provide an opportunity to accelerate the transition to the new system and ensure availability is linked to the reduction in the Basic Payment Scheme, which is currently the biggest EU funding stream for farmers.