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I attended the two CFE training days for agronomists at Loddington and Hope Farm last week.
Overview presentation.
Jim Egan (FWAG) gave a 1 hour presentation on the background, organisation, targets, audiences, delivery, activities and monitoring of the Campaign, and finished with the key messages. The aim is to “recapture set-aside benefits from a relatively small area of well located and positively managed land”. The specific environmental benefits that the Campaign aims to deliver are based on the three themes: resource protection, farmland birds and other farm wildlife. The specific targets are to:
- Double the area of key in-field ELS options (an extra 40,000 ha)
- Retain the current area of uncropped land (179,000 ha)
- Increase the area of land voluntarily managed for the environment by at least 30,000 ha)
In order to achieve these, the CFE partners will assist NE in getting 70% of agricultural land into agri-environment schemes by March 2011, training 1500 agronomists and advisers, seeking to improve the environmental management of 1/3 of uncropped land, and promoting voluntary measures with the greatest environmental benefit, promote participation by farmers outside of agri-environment schemes. Farmers can participate in the Campaign by entering or renewing an ELS agreement and including some of the in-field options contributing to the CFE targets, or by adopting one or more of the 15 voluntary management measures developed for the Campaign. He stressed that this is a national Campaign relevant to all farmers with arable land in England, although much of the CFE activity will be delivered by the Local Liaison Groups in key counties, who will disseminate information in their area and host Beacon Farm events for farmers to discuss how to participate. NE will do monitoring of ELS participation using their own register of ELS agreements. The farmer will record voluntary measures on a record form that all farmers with over 10 ha of arable land will receive in January. This record will be kept on farm. He summarised the ask of farmers:
- Renew or apply for ELS and choose some key in-field options
- Retain uncropped land where possible and record all GAEC12 fallows on SPS claim forms
- Aim to deliver one of the voluntary management measures outside of the ELS agreement
- Adopt a balance of measures to provide the greatest environmental benefits
Farm Walk.
The three themes of the Campaign were covered by Environment Agency (resource protection), RSPB and GWCT (farmland birds) and NE (farm wildlife).
The resource protection theme covers conservation of soil and protection of water quality. The main aims are to:
- Tackle the source of soil erosion and run-off, e.g. by establishing a winter cover crop to capture excess nitrogen, improve soil structure and reduce run-off
- Slow the pathway of erosion and run-off, e.g. by grassing field corners and drainage pathways
- Protect ditches and watercourses (receptors), e.g. by creating buffer strips to filter and trap pollutants and soil.
The Farmland Bird Package is the right balance of measures to provide effective farmland bird conservation with the minimum amount of land taken out of production. It can be delivered using ELS options and / or CFE voluntary measures. Scientists and advisers from RSPB, NE, GWCT and FWAG developed it specifically for the CFE. The attached briefing with all the details was handed out at the events.
The Farm Wildlife theme focused on how to help important wildlife groups of arable farmland:
- Establish a network of flower-rich habitats around the farm for pollinating insects
- Conserve arable plants on light, free-draining soils using uncropped cultivated margins or conservation headlands
- Buffer and protect watercourses and water-bodies to conserve fish, amphibians, aquatic mammals and invertebrates
- Retain and manage unimproved or flower-rich grasslands
The first three of these can also contribute to one or both of the other themes of the Campaign, so selection of smart measures can reduce the amount of land taken out of production to meet all three themes.
I will post questions and answers discussed at these events and other CFE meetings on this website in due course. The CFE Delivery Group will discuss the need for further events at their next meeting this month.
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