Zero set-aside will show farming and wildlife can co-exist
Wednesday September 26 2007
The NFU is advising farmers to consider carefully how they respond to the Commission's decision to reduce set-aside to zero for 2008. The move to reduce set-aside has been made to ease pressures caused by increasing global demand for grain and growing world populations.
The adoption of zero set-aside, announced at today's EU Agricultural Council meeting, will give choice back to farmers and growers and allow them flexibility to meet the demands of world markets. But, contrary to popular belief, farmers will not be forced or obliged to cultivate any additional land, formerly set-aside or cropped, in 2007/08.
NFU President Peter Kendall said: "With mounting concern across the world over grain shortages, caused in the main by adverse climate conditions and increasing global demand, the productivity of our farmland matters more now than ever before.
"However, production does not need to come at a cost for the environment. I urge farmers and growers to retain areas of high conservation value and I am convinced they will do so. NFU analysis suggests areas of substantial environmental interest will be kept by farmers as incentive to cultivate all set-aside no longer exists under the Single Payment Scheme.
"We believe well-designed Environmental Stewardship options can further contribute to maintaining the increase we have seen in wildlife numbers in a more targeted manner than set aside has done.
"The NFU will be working with Defra to demonstrate how areas of conservation importance can be included within Environmental Stewardship in the future.
"We welcome today's announcement on set-aside as it gives farmers and growers the opportunity to show the future for agriculture lies in achieving both the prosperity and productivity of agricultural and wildlife, side by side."
Notes to editors:
1. A NFU survey has shown, if set-aside is set at zero, farmers plan to crop only a proportion of the land not currently in production, taken from both fallow land and set-aside from around their farms.
2. The NFU is advising farmers to consider their cropping options and target areas of evident value with an Environmental Stewardship agreement.
3. Since 2005 over half of English farms have put land into environmental schemes aimed at enhancing the landscape and providing additional wildlife habitat. The net benefit of these new schemes is expected to far outweigh any incidental benefits wildlife derives from set-aside. A total of 4.7 million ha is now under these schemes.
