The deadline for applications into the Entry Level (ELS) and Organic Entry Level (OELS) strands of the new Environmental Stewardship Schemes has been extended.

Technical difficulties, as well as a backlog of applications to the Rural Land Register (RLR) which provides the land maps essential for entry into the schemes, have created problems for those wishing to apply.

In recognition of these difficulties, the following action has been taken:

* Application deadline extended from May 31 to July 1 2005. Provided a valid application (see notes for editors) is received before July 1, 2005 applicants will receive an agreement with a start date of August 1, 2005.

* For those already in the land registration priority queue on the original closing date of 31 May 2005, and those who have requested an application pack before this date but for whom technical issues have prevented the printing and postage of the pack, the deadline for receipt of valid application forms is July 15, 2005. Any applications received from these groups after July 15, 2005 will be processed but it is very probable that they will receive a later start date.

* Delay to ELS-Online service. The ELS-Online service has not been made available as soon as we had intended. Therefore, customers are encouraged to apply using paper applications: the extension to the application deadline will give sufficient time to do this. Final tests of the Online service are underway and we hope to begin a staged release of the online service at some point in June when we are confident the system is both robust and user-friendly.

* Priority for registration of land: The agreement with the Rural Payments Agency to make land registrations essential for ELS and OELS applications a priority will continue.

A Defra spokesman said:

"We want to ensure that farmers who wish to start their agreement in August will be able to do so: this extension should allow them to do just that.

"After all, the sooner farmers sign up to environmental stewardship, the sooner we will start seeing the benefits of the scheme to our countryside.

"We would like to apologise to those who have encountered problems in applying for the ELS. All those who have requested packs will be written to explaining the changes."