Unpaid Voluntary Environmental Land Management

Defra recently released data concerning the unpaid voluntary environmental management of land and attitudes towards the environment and understanding and awareness of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment. The data was collected from farms of at least 10 hectares of crops or grassland.

The findings show that during the crop year 2013-14, 450,000 hectares of land was managed under listed unpaid voluntary environmental measures with an additional 9,760 skylark plots and 7,387km of fenced watercourses. The largest land area of the measures listed was 161,000 hectares of fertiliser free permanent pasture followed by 109,000 hectares of over-wintered stubbles. The findings also show that 44% of farmers surveyed do some form of unpaid voluntary environmental land management. Many farmers think they are already doing enough for the environment and it was the main reason given by the 56% of farmers surveyed who do not have any form of unpaid environmental land management for not doing so. When those without any land already in unpaid voluntary environmental management measures were asked if they intended to do so, 15% answered 'Yes'.

The attitudes of farmers towards the environment are reflected also in their involvement in agri-environment schemes and 51% answered positively regarding membership of Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) scheme. When asked about their decision making regarding the environment about 80% of farmers surveyed put the greatest importance on the efficient use of inputs and protecting soil and water and considered that these should be put in the 'very important' category. Protecting wildlife was also important to a majority of farmers with 59% considering it 'very important'.

The number of farmers who consider that they have a good understanding and awareness of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment remained steady at around 15% between 2012-13 and 2013-14, 47% having some understanding and 12% having little or no idea. The most common source of information regarding the CFE was the farming press (64%) and CFE leaflets (43%) with 22% saying they had none.

Countryside Maintenance and Management Activities 2010-11

Defra's latest statistics on Countryside Maintenenace and Management Activities (CMMA) final estimates, released 28 June 2012, show that over 52,193 farms of the 56,294 farms in the Farm Business Survey (FBS) population carried out some kind of countryside maintenance and management activities in 2010-11. The number includes 99% of LFA grazing livestock and 98% of cereal farms. The lowest rate was for Pig farms at 58%. Rates of participation according to farm size were 95% for small farms, 94% for medium-sized farms and a lower rate of 88% for large farms.

Costs involved for farms with CMMA ranged from £2,327 for General Cropping farms to £392 for Pig farms with an average of £1,675 per farm for participating farms. The average cost per hectare was £11.75. Costs for CMMA as a proportion of total farm costs were much higher for Lowland and LFA grazing livestock farms, 2.2% and 2% respectively, with an average of 1% or less for other farms.

The most common CMMA overall was Boundary features such as hedges and wall maintenance with 82% of all participating farms doing such work including 96% of LFA grazing livestock farms. Other CMMAs include trees and woodland, historic and landscape features, buffer strips, arable land, range of crop types, soil and water protection, grassland and other activities not included in Entry Level Stewardship (ELS).

Some of the CMMAs contribute to the Campaign for the Farmed Environment targets. These include some Buffer strip activities, field corner management, overwintered stubble, uncropped land, beetle barks, skylark plots, wild bird seed mixture or pollen and nectar mixture, conservation headlands and reverted arable area (higher level stewardship (HLS)) from the Arable land ELS scheme option group.