England Rural Development Programme - England Rural Development Programme 2000-2006

England Rural Development Programme 2000-2006

The England Rural Development Programme 2000-2006 included the following schemes:

• Environmental Stewardship Scheme (introduced in March 2005): Provides funding to farmers and other land managers in England who deliver effective environmental management on their land.
• Countryside Stewardship Scheme (closed to new applicants and superseded by the Environmental Stewardship Scheme): Made payments to farmers and other land managers to enhance and conserve English landscapes, their wildlife and history and to help people to enjoy them.
• Environmentally Sensitive Areas Scheme (closed to new applicants and superseded by the Environmental Stewardship Scheme): Offered incentives to encourage farmers to adopt agricultural practices which would safeguard and enhance parts of the country of particularly high landscape, wildlife or historic value.
• Energy Crops Scheme Provided establishment grants for short-rotation coppice and miscanthus, and aid to help short-rotation coppice growers set up producer groups.
• Farm Woodland Premium Scheme (closed to new applicants and superseded by the English Woodland Grant Scheme): Provided annual financial incentives to farmers to convert productive agricultural land to woodland with the objective of enhancing the environment, improving the landscape, providing new habitats and increasing biodiversity.
• Woodland Grant Scheme (closed to new applicants and superseded by the English Woodland Grant Scheme): Provided grants for the establishment of woodland.
• English Woodland Grant Scheme (introduced in 2005): Provides a suite of grants aimed at sustaining and increasing the public benefits given by existing woodlands and

helping to create new woodlands to deliver additional public benefit.

• Organic Farming Scheme (closed to new applicants and superseded by the Environmental Stewardship Scheme): Provided financial help during the process of converting from conventional to organic farming methods.
• Hill Farm Allowance: Aims to contribute to the maintenance of the social fabric in upland communities through support for continued agricultural land use and help to preserve the farmed upland environment by ensuring that land in the Less Favoured Areas is managed in a sustainable way.
• Rural Enterprise Scheme (closed to new applicants): Provided assistance for projects that help to develop more sustainable, diversified and enterprising rural economies and communities with the primary aim of helping farmers adapt to changing markets and develop new business opportunities. It also had a broader role in supporting the adaptation and development of the rural economy, community, heritage and environment.
• Vocational Training Scheme (closed to new applicants): Provided funding for vocational training activities that contribute to an improvement in the occupational skill and competence of farmers and other persons involved in forestry and farming activities and their conversion (ie. diversification into non farming or forestry activities, or a change from one type of agricultural activity to another).
• Processing and Marketing Scheme (closed to new applicants): Provided support for capital investment in projects aimed at improving the processing and marketing of agricultural products in order to increase their competitiveness in the market place and their added value.

The England Rural Development Programme for 2000-2006 ended on 31 December 2006.