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Written question asked by Roger Williams (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 18 November 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 23 November 2009. It was answered by Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour) on Monday, 30 November 2009 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Agriculture: Finance

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many on-farm visits were made in relation to rural development programme schemes in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Answer

Both Natural England (NE) and the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) make on-farm visits in relation to rural development programme schemes.NE make agri-environment (AE) agreement visits. These visits by land management experts are to assess the environmental features of the site, to work with the farmer to design and agree the management options that will deliver the most benefit, or to monitor the benefits and suggest improvements (these are distinct from the formal inspections carried out by RPA). NE makes about 26,000 visits to 18,000 farms each year. NE has over 58,000 AE agreements, so this is about one visit every two years, but the visits are focused on areas with the most environmental impact, typically higher level stewardship and environmentally sensitive areas.The RPA undertakes on-farm compliance inspections made under land-based rural development schemes. The number of visits made in the last five years are shown in the following table.

Number
2009 3,180
2008 3,510
2007 3,970
2006 4,215
2005 3,443

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
501 c381-2W; 300293
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Rural development programme
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk