Dry weather advice issued to people on agri-environment schemes

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Some NGO members, based in parts of England suffering from recent high temperatures and lack of rain, may benefit from recent advice from the government to contact the Rural Payments Agency at the earliest opportunity.  

Defra advises anyone who thinks that the weather will affect their ability to meet the terms of any of the following agri-environment schemes to contact the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), providing the RPA with detail about the issue including the date and time that it occurred. 

The schemes include Basic Payment Scheme, Environmental Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship, Sustainable Farming Incentive (and pilot) and Farm Woodland Premium/English Woodland Grant Scheme  

Where the temperature means that you cannot temporarily manage your agreement according to the Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship option requirements, you can request a minor and temporary adjustment to those requirements. If this is the case, for Basic Payment Scheme 2022 applications, and Countryside Stewardship agreements starting from 1 January 2021, you must email or write to the RPA using the subject title ‘Extreme heat 2022’, your SBI and, for the Countryside Stewardship scheme, your agreement reference. 

If you are unable to meet your requirements under your agreement, you must send your email or letter within 8 weeks of being in a position to do so. You will need to provide written evidence to show: 

♦what has happened 

♦how the event meant you were unable to meet the scheme rules.

If the impact of heat is more serious and permanent, you should notify RPA and consider requesting force majeure. This is where you are unable to meet scheme requirements or agreement obligations due to exceptional and unforeseeable circumstances outside your control.

If you do need to request force majeure, for requests concerning Environmental Stewardship agreements, and Countryside Stewardship agreements starting before 1 January 2021, you must send your email or letter within 15 working days of being in a position to do so. This is not necessarily 15 working days from the force majeure event itself. 

You will need to prove that, despite taking every care that could have been expected of you, the exceptional circumstances prevented you from meeting your obligations. 

Your evidence should include details of the actions taken with an explanation of the events and the dates they occurred. 

For full information on all of the above, and further details on what to do with regards to other schemes, follow this link by clicking here. 

To contact the RPA:

Email ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk or write to: 

Rural Payments Agency  
PO Box 352  
Worksop  
S80 9FG  

You can also call: 03000 200 301