The NFU has called on Defra and Natural England to improve the Countryside Stewardship scheme, which was launched last year to replace the previous scheme after CAP reforms came into effect.

This week, the NFU Council revealed that just 3,000 agreement offers have been made, though 11,000 ELS agreements expired in 2015. Natural England Chief Operating Officer Guy Thompson admitted to the NFU Council that Countryside Stewardship got off to a wobbly start and in some cases, he said, it was “just downright poor.”

However, on Thursday a Natural England spokesperson said the quango is “Pleased with the quality and volume of applications for the first year of this new and competitive scheme.”

The spokesperson continued, “Given the competitive and targeted nature of Countryside Stewardship, we would not expect the same volume of applications as under the Environmental Stewardship scheme. However, we anticipate we will receive more applications next year as farmers become familiar with the new scheme and Environmental Stewardship agreements gradually expire.”

NFU’s Guy Smith, on the other hand, said, “It’s no surprise that the uptake of Countryside Stewardship has dropped off so significantly with the poor launch that it’s had. What they need to focus on now is improving the scheme. And we, as the NFU, are committed to keeping the pressure on them to make sure this happens.”

TheNatural England spokesperson said, “We’re making improvements to the guidance material and lengthening application windows this year so applicants have more time to develop their agreements,” and said that £900 million in Countryside Stewardship funding will go to farmers and landowners under the new agri-environment scheme, and £2.1billion in payments will be made to existing Environmental Stewardship schemes.

The NFU has said scheme’s guidance needs to be rewritten with farmers in mind, as (at over 800 pages) it’s off-puttingly bureaucratic. Union leaders also said it’s currently too easy to incur penalties under the new scheme.