British farmers should not expect a future free from regulation if they are going to tackle food security and environmental challenges, according to RSPB conservation director Mark Avery.
This remark was made in response to a question from a farmer in the audience who was keen to see regulations removed from farming at a discussion at the Conservative Party conference which was covered in today’s Farmers Weekly.
The role farmers play in the environment is set to come under close scrutiny soon when the National Farmers Union launches its Campaign for the Farmed Environment. The campaign is the industry’s plan for recapturing the benefits to wildlife that were lost as a result of the removal of set-aside from the countryside.
Farmers are being asked to take land out of production, sow seed-rich field margins, plant hedgerows and protect watercourses so that birds, small mammals and invertebrates.
The RSPB has been developing ways for farmers to tend their land with wildlife in mind at its own Hope Farm in Cambridgeshire – which gives me a great chance to trumpet how successful the farm’s feathered occupants have been this year.
We’ve had another record year with 44 pairs of skylarks compared with 23 last year, five grey partridge pairs against last year’s three and 33 linnet pairs to 2008’s 18. Other species that are up are yellowhammer (39 pairs, up from 35 last year), whitethroat (48, up from 31) and greenfinch (20, up from 14). The total number of farmland bird birds at Hope Farm has risen 177 per cent since we bought the land in 2000. All that and our crops yields are above the national average.
All this proves that if we put in the effort we can ensure that our farmed countryside is able to put food on our tables, and provide a home for threatened wildlife at the same time. And if that happens then surely we’re all winners..