Under the new Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), greening will account for around 30 per cent of claimants' direct payments. The new information will make farmers aware of cross-compliance measures and available opportunities for further 'greening'.

A two-month inspection window of May to June has been set for the five percent of farms that will be inspected, the Defra secretary announced, which should cover "the vast majority" of crops in England.

If any crops have been harvested before 30 June, stubble will count as evidence that a crop has been grown. Defra is also calling for more evidence to be acceptable, such as physical signs or organic matter in the soil, or photographs and records. Ministers have also committed to work with industry to explore exceptions for late-sown crops or crops with very short growing periods.

More information on the successor to the Environmental Stewardship Scheme – which will begin in 2016 – will be made available in the autumn. More information is available from Defra here.

In June, a group of experts led by Lynn Dicks from the University of Cambridge published a study in the prestigious journal Science, which concluded that "The EU failed to stand to the promises of greening the Common Agricultural Policy." Dicks and colleagues issued a stark warning that, as early greening commitments were eroded under pressure from lobbyists and sympathetic member state governments, "The European Union's recent agricultural reforms are [now] far too weak to have any positive impact on the continent's shrinking farmland biodiversity… despite political proclamation of increased environmental focus."

Last year, a team led by Professor Ian Bateman, also reporting in Science, found that CAP spending represents "poor value for society" and urged for subsidies to be "refocused" towards protecting wildlife and the environment, mitigating pollution and improving access to the countryside. They said this would amplify the current effect of spending by three times, rather than increasing private wealth with public money.