Agrovista’s new Rural Consultancy national manager Hamish Wardrop is urging farmers to look beyond the headline value when choosing SFI options and to focus instead on the longer-term benefits they can help create.
“In many cases, overall levels of support will be lower than farms have been receiving under BPS,” says Hamish. “In order to extract the maximum benefit from SFI, I believe we have to fully embrace all of the actions rather than treating them as box-ticking exercises to attract an immediate payment.
“It is our job to help our customers make the most of these opportunities and ensure the best mix is chosen for their farming system, delivering positive environmental impacts whilst complementing the productivity of the farm in the longer term.”
Agrovista is in the main a technical company, focused on growing crops as successfully and profitably as possible, says Hamish. “Agricultural policy has evolved and is now very much tied in with production, so it makes sense to maintain this technical approach when choosing SFI actions.”
The Rural Consultancy team works closely with their agronomist colleagues to achieve this, he adds. “Farmers don’t want something out of a textbook when seeking advice. They want to know what will work for them in practice and how to implement those options on the ground.