New figures reveal the Campaign for the Farmed Environment (CFE) continues to gather increased farmer support, although there is still room for improvement.

The postal survey, carried out in February, was used to assess the area of land managed under CFE for the 2011-12 cropping year and attracted an outstanding 70 per cent response rate from farmers.

Amongst many results, Jim Egan, chairman of the campaign’s delivery group believes the most encouraging is the increase in total land area managed voluntarily (i.e. outside of any agri-environment scheme) by 11 per cent to 214,917ha.

“Overall the results demonstrate continued momentum for the campaign,” said Mr Egan. “However, challenges remain. We know from last years’ experience that some land recorded doesn’t necessarily meet the requirements for intended environmental benefits.”

The survey reports improvements across all three key CFE themes.

Measures to help resource protection, such as grass buffers alongside temporary and permanent watercourses, have increased by over 33 per cent to 18,226ha; while grass areas to prevent erosion and run-off have risen 15 per cent to 8,126ha.

Farmland bird options, such as fallow plots (also known as lapwing plots) have increased to 4,567ha from 2,591ha and game strips are now at 15,753ha from 13,046ha. While biodiversity will benefit from the increase in pollen and nectar mixes from 1,561ha to 2,579ha.

“The CFE asks farmers to choose options that support our three themes,” said Mr Egan. “We use the example that if every farmer buffered vulnerable watercourses, established 2ha of wild bird seed mix and 1ha of pollen and nectar mix on every 100 ha of arable land then the CFE will succeed. These survey results suggest we are starting to achieve that goal.”

“Some 70 per cent of respondents (5 per cent more than last year) claimed ‘some’ or ‘a good’ understanding of the campaign. The increased awareness reflects the unified approach of the partner organisations and the strong support of the farming media.”

A significant concern for campaign partners is a dramatic reduction in uncropped area to 82,409ha (130,374ha). Campaign partners will be looking for a definitive confirmation of this shift in the official June Census data.

“This decline is disappointing. However, we recognise that impending CAP reform could alter the agenda on-farm. It is important that when uncropped land is returned to rotation that it is replaced by other environmental options to support the CFE,” added Mr Egan.