Environment secretary Liz Truss this week announced that farmers could be penalised for setting up renewable energy projects on their land.

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Announcing that farmers with "Fields filled with solar panels" could face subsidy penalties on Sunday, Truss' department said the decision had been taken to "Ensure more agricultural land is dedicated to growing crops and food," but added that "The move will help rural communities who do not want their countryside blighted by solar farms."

The change would mean farmers lose their right to claim subsidies under the Common Agriculture Policy on land used for solar projects and is set to come into effect from 1st January.

The Environment Secretary said, "English farmland is some of the best in the world and I want to see it dedicated to growing quality food and crops. I do not want to see its productive potential wasted and its appearance blighted by solar farms. Farming is what our farms are for and it is what keeps our landscape beautiful.

"I am committed to food production in this country and it makes my heart sink to see row upon row of solar panels where once there was a field of wheat or grassland for livestock to graze. That is why I am scrapping farming subsidies for solar fields. Solar panels are best placed on the 250,000 hectares of south facing commercial rooftops where they will not compromise the success of our agricultural industry."

Government energy policy has come in for heavy criticism, from slashing funding designed to incentivise transitions to renewable energy, to supporting now-infamous shale gas fracking, which former environment secretary Owen Paterson said last week would be a "real boon" to poor parts of the country.

Responding to Paterson's comments, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said, "To suggest that government-neglected local economies could benefit from fracking in any substantial way is gravely misleading… Investment in renewables, however, would create jobs, and make for more resilient local economies, an inconvenient truth for the pro-fracking lobby, Mr Paterson included."

The move on solar panels follows an announcement by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), that renewable energy subsidies for new large-scale solar farms will end next April.

Commenting on the Defra announcement, Leonie Greene, Head of External Affairs at the Solar Trade Association said, "It is damaging and incorrect for Defra to suggest that solar farms are in conflict with food production. The Government's own planning guidance makes clear that farming practices should continue on solar farms on greenfield land. The industry, working with the National Farmers Union, has been very careful to define good practice to ensure continued agricultural production. Indeed detailed guidance on this is being discussed by the All Party Group for Beef and Lamb in the House of Commons today."

Greene said the STA will be writing to the Defra secretary, and said the argument that land would be freed up for "food and crops" by the subsidy cuts was misleading in that the department had "failed to consider how solar and farming can actually go hand in hand."

The STA spokesperson continued, "The land is still available for farming – the solar fixings only take up 5% of the land. This means plenty of room for continued agricultural practices such as sheep, geese or chicken farming. As far as farm payments are concerned, solar should really be treated in the same way as orchards or fields with trees, where animals continue to graze the land in between.

"Solar farms have an important role to play in conserving our countryside. Not only can solar power save huge amounts of greenhouse gases, but solar farms can provide protected spaces for boosting biodiversity, such as wildflowers and bees, as well as providing greater income stability for farmers who face increasing weather risk due to climate change. We urge Defra to champion best practice in the solar industry for the benefit of British farmers, our climate and our countryside."