Taxpayers' money should go to farmers who deliver the "things people want from our countryside", from better animal welfare to planting trees, a leading rural organisation has urged.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents 30,000 landowners, farmers and rural businesses in England and Wales, is calling for a move away from subsidies which simply pay people based on how much land they farm.

As the UK leaves the European Union, the current EU-wide subsidy regime largely paid on the amount of land farmed should be replaced with "land management contracts" - business contracts to manage land in ways that delivers public benefits.

Farmers would receive payments for choosing to deliver services such as storing carbon, managing water quality, connecting up habitats, reducing flood risk or protecting famous beauty spots and important landscapes.

The reforms would also see funding allocated to broaden measures to support an increase in farming productivity and rural economic prosperity.

The moves could "end once and for all the divisive view that farmers are receiving subsidies for nothing", CLA president Ross Murray suggested.

He said: "Farmers and landowners want to run profitable sustainable businesses. We want to produce quality food that receives a fair price and we accept the same risk and reward as any other business in our economy."

Mr Murray added that ending reliance on subsidy should be a long-term ambition of post-Brexit agricultural policy in the UK, and there should be fundamental reform of payments - but not an end to them.

He said: "Payments are necessary because there is vital work to be done across our countryside to manage soils and preserve the productive capacity of the land, to plant the trees we need, to clean and store water, to support the farming practices that make up our iconic landscapes or to make it possible for people to enjoy our beautiful natural spaces.

"These responsibilities bring costs and burdens that other businesses do not have to bear.

"That is why it is right to continue to invest public money in remunerating farmers to deliver the things people want from our countryside.

"The land management contract is a new way to deliver what is needed, using public money cost-effectively. It turns a system based on entitlement to one of business contracts for defined services.

"These are contracts under which any farmer or forester, from the smallest hill farmer to the large estate owner, can choose to undertake in return for a financial reward based on what they contribute, not the amount of land they own."

He suggested if the new payments were delivered with a suitable transition, and were made alongside a new industrial strategy for the food and farming sector, it could harness the opportunities of leaving the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

It could "unlock a new lease of life for farming, our rural economy and communities across the countryside", he said.