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environmental land management schemes

Agri-environment schemes work: Natural England’s latest findings

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: environmental land management schemes, Farming and Countryside Programme
Chalk downland with common spotted orchid and rough hawkbit in foregrouns

This month, Natural England published its annual report summarising projects of the Agri-Environment Scheme Monitoring & Evaluation Programme. In this guest post, Natural England’s Usha Waygood, Senior Officer in the Evidence Directorate, highlights some of the team’s findings from the report.

An update on SFI and our agri-environment schemes 

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: environmental land management schemes, Sustainable Farming Incentive
Combine Harvester at work in Bradfield St George with farmer in foreground

It's been a while since our last post. We’re glad to be back! Over the past month, we've been welcoming Defra's new ministerial team, who are fully committed to environmental land management schemes. We've been working with them to optimise our schemes and grants for farmers, food security and nature recovery. In this post, we’ll update you on the SFI rollout, provide links to new supplementary scheme guidance and share details on endorsed actions and capital items.

The evidence we use to develop our environmental land management schemes 

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A patchwork of fields including sheep and cows taken in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire.

We’re committed to ensuring that the policies underpinning our environmental land management schemes are based on the very latest and best possible evidence. One evidence source is the recently published qualitative environmental impact assessment (QEIA). In this post I’ll give an overview.  

A test and trials spotlight: Weald to Waves

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Thumbnail image showing a clip of a participant at a desk with a map

Farmers and land managers participating in Weald to Waves share their experiences of taking part in tests and trials. The test is part of a wider project, led by Knepp Estate, which aims to build a wildlife corridor stretching from Ashdown Forest to the Sussex coast. Along the way, they share with us how they brought together farmers on the route to develop group agreements, management plans and funding mechanisms for the corridor.

Spotlight on updates and additions to livestock and grassland offer

Over the past few weeks, we've summarised the updates to our environmental land management offer by farm type. These posts follow last month's Agricultural Transition Plan update. In this post, we’ll focus on the updated offer for livestock and grassland farmers. 

The current offer for horticultural growers and farmers 

Brussel sprouts

The horticulture industry in England is diverse. As such, we and have a range of different offers available for farmers and growers. Whether you grow carrots or strawberries, daffodils or apples there is support you can access to help increase your productivity, improve the environment and innovate. In this post, we’ll summarise the schemes and grants horticultural famers and growers can access now. We'll also include links for you to join 2 upcoming webinars.

Watch: webinar on the farming offer in 2024

On Friday 26 January, we held a webinar for farmers. During the session, we went through the actions and payments available through our environmental land management schemes in 2024. This post includes a link to the recording.

Watch: Trialling farmer-led land management plans at Aqualate Mere, Staffordshire

In this film, farmers from the Aqualate Mere catchment share their experiences of taking part in Tests and Trials. This test created a land management plan and worked to set priorities for the catchment, incorporating biodiversity, water quality and carbon sequestration.

Protecting hedgerows: share your views

Posted by: and , Posted on: - Categories: environmental land management schemes, Payments to support hedgerows
Hedgerow with buffer strip

Hedgerows store carbon, support crop pollinators, create habitats for animals, slow water flow and create shade and fodder for animals. We want to protect the hedges we have, invest in their maintenance and support further planting.  We also want to make sure that hedgerow regulations work for wildlife, the environment and farmers. Today we launched a consultation on hedgerow protections in England and we want your views.