Intended Uptake of Environmental Schemes

Interim results from a national poll in England, conducted by the National Farm Research Unit (NFRU), reveal that farmers are keen to progress environmental schemes, be they the Campaign for the Farmed Environment, Entry Level Schemes (ELS) or Higher Level Schemes (HLS). The survey so far, which has interviewed 2643 farmers in England, revealed that 50% of eligible farmers already had an ELS agreement and 7% of farmers had a current HLS agreement. A further 19% of English farmers said that they planned to implement such a scheme in the future.

"With many ELS renewals anticipated five years after the first were initially introduced, the Poll also asked farmers whether they planned to renew their ELS when the scheme expired. The results revealed that a high percentage (74%) of farmers who had a current environmental agreement are planning to renew their ELS agreement, but 19% said that they didn’t know, as yet, what they would be doing. For farmers already with an ELS, 17% intended to upgrade the ELS to a HLS scheme," reports Jim Williams of the NFRU.

"Farmers were also quizzed about the Campaign for the Farmed Environment (CFE), a self regulating scheme that was only launched this year by a number of organisations including the NFU, CLA, LEAF, FWAG, RSPB, Natural England and the Environment Agency, with the view to promote the voluntary management of farmland and to achieve particular environmental targets on farmland birds, resource protection and wider biodiversity. The survey indicates so far that 68% of all farmers in England were aware of the CFE, with 4% saying that they were unsure," says Jim.

"But when the farmers were asked if they would be implementing the CFE on their farm, only 35% gave a positive response, with 43% saying that they didn’t know when or whether they would be doing so. Depending on what the "Don’t knows" end up doing, this could be shy of the national target figure, which has been set at 70% of farm land in England being under environmental stewardship by March 2011. It indicates to me that there is still work to be done to promote the uptake of this particular voluntary scheme," advises Mr. Williams.

He reports that in terms of timelines, 18% of farmers who were aware of the CFE said that they would be implementing it on their farm this year, 9% said they would be implementing it immediately and 8% planned to action it next year. This adds up to 35% in total with positive action plans.

"There was some regional variation throughout the Poll. In the North East (61% of farmers), the East Midlands (59% of farmers) and in Yorkshire and Humberside (53% of farmers) said that they had a current ELS agreement and in the South East 14% of farmers had an HLS agreement."

"When it comes to renewing ELS, the North East (79% of farmers), South East (78%) and the Eastern Region (77%) showed more enthusiasm than other regions, although in most regions the level of renewal was up in the 70%. Upgrading to HLS from ELS was more popular in the South East (31% of farmers who already had an ELS agreement) as well as in North East (20%), the Eastern Region (20%) and in the East Midlands (17%)," explains Jim.

Awareness of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment was highest in the South East and Eastern regions (78% of all farms being aware), followed by the East Midlands (76% of farmers). When it comes to implementing the CFE on farm, the South East came out on top with 44% of farmers saying that they would be actioning it immediately or at least within the next year. Over 42% farmers in the Eastern region and in the North East said that they would be implementing such a scheme, immediately or at least within the next year.