RESEARCHERS at Aberdeen and Leeds universities have suggested aid is better targeted to secure the future of hill farming, wildlife and clean water supplies.
A team working on a project on securing the long-term future of upland agriculture yesterday said hill farmers should be rewarded for more than just keeping livestock.
They said aid should be focused on protecting water as the hills were the source of 70% of Britain's drinking water, as well as in using the land to sequestrate carbon emissions.
Joint project leader Professor Joseph Holden said: “The uplands are not just barren patches of wilderness, they are highly-managed landscapes that many people in the UK depend on for their livelihoods.
“Most current payments to upland farmers are based on the area of land they hold rather than what they’re using it for. But society needs people managing the hills to protect water supplies and unique wildlife, and to keep carbon locked in peat soils.”
Aberdeen University's Mark Reed said it was not about new funding for the uplands, rather using existing support more effectively in what he considered to be a radical rethink in the way cash is distributed through the less-favoured area scheme.
Mr Reed, who also jointly led the investigation, said the universities were already talking to policymakers about their idea to fund a much wider range of goods and services through agricultural payments. He added: “This may involve paying bonuses to people who join together to do things at a landscape scale, for example, to reduce flood risk or create new wildlife habitats. It is about rewarding different types of land management, where for instance teams of landowners or farmers might want to work together in a river catchment area on flood mitigation or habitat protection."
The recommendations from the project, which has been studying upland agriculture in the Peak District National Park, the Yorkshire Dales and Galloway, comes as Europe is reviewing the future of less-favoured area support and the Brian Pack inquiry considers the shape of agricultural support payments post 2013. The findings have already been fed into both.
The research also involved Durham, Sheffield and Sussex universities as well as the Moors for the Future partnership and the Heather Trust.