A group of twenty farmers in Hampshire are working together to improve the natural environment across 4550 hectares of farmland in the Wallop Brook river catchment area.
The Wallop Brook farmers are one of 37 groups to receive funding from Defra in the latest round of Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund awards.
There are now a total of 98 groups working across 450,000 hectares of land in England to deliver landscape-scale measures for wildlife, water management and the historic environment.
The funding will allow the Hampshire farmers to work with an experienced conservation expert in order to find the best ways to deliver environmental improvements on their land.
The farmers believe that by coming together to manage the whole catchment from top to bottom, they can look after their natural assets and help make their farms more sustainable.
As well as producing food, the Wallop Brook farmers are managing a range of important assets including the brook itself, floodplain meadows and ancient woodland.
It is hoped their collective efforts will provide improved habitats for wildlife on a landscape scale to better aid conservation of important species, including water vole and brown trout.
'Committed and passionate'
Alison Cross, of Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, who will act as farm adviser to the Wallop Brook group, said she is "delighted" to be working with a group of "committed and passionate" farmers.
“I believe that together we can achieve significant results for wildlife and the wider environment,” Ms Cross explained.
“In this first year we will be taking a close look at soil health and how it can be improved. Getting the soil right is fundamental to the health of our crops, rivers and wildlife. We will also be starting a programme of detailed wildlife surveys to help us ensure that we are targeting our work in the right way.”
Speaking about the latest Facilitation Fund awards, Farming Minister George Eustice said the fund is contributing to an "important step change" in nature conservation by encouraging people who bring farmers together to improve the local natural environment at a landscape scale.
He said: “It is particularly encouraging to see how many high quality applications we received, which we hope to replicate across the Countryside Stewardship scheme due to simpler wildlife offers being introduced this year.”
