Environmental Stewardship Launched: Green Farming For All
01/03/05

Defra's new Environmental Stewardship Scheme, which will form a central part of the biggest changes to farming for a generation, will be launched nationally on 3 March 2005.

Sir Don Curry, chairman of the Government's Sustainable Farming and Food Implementation Group and a Northumberland farmer, will be helping to launch the new scheme in the North East at a special event at Newcastle Falcons RUFC on Friday, 4 March 2005.

All farmers will be able to earn money for looking after hedgerows, providing habitats for birds and small mammals, creating wildflower plots for bees and other beneficial insects and protecting ponds from pesticides and fertilisers to encourage wildlife such as frogs and newts and a wide range of other environmental measures. This will help to reduce the decline in wild bird populations, cut pollution and increase all forms of wildlife on farms.

Together with the Single Payment Scheme, the start of Environmental Stewardship will mark a watershed in the way England is farmed.