The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust has proposed that farmers should have the option of putting a minimum of 1% of their farm area into a new "conservation set-aside" scheme that would pay £500/ha.

The proposal is designed to mitigate against the loss of environmental benefits after the announcement of 0% set-aside in late September.

Under the proposed optional scheme the trust suggests a minimum of 1% of the farm area should be given over to one of three conservation regimes (see panel).

The land, which should not be in any existing stewardship agreement, should be in 1ha patches with widths of no less than 20m, and not be within 50m of woodland or 500m of each other.

The DEFRA statement on set-aside was disappointing, Stephen Tapper, GWCT's policy director, said. "One of its own reports said there were benefits from set-aside, yet it is shrugging its shoulders and just saying it will keep an eye on it. If the environmental benefits are lost it will be difficult to turn around.

"We calculate that you would need just one-10th of the area [committed to conservation set-aside] to make up the difference."

The scheme would have to be funded, either as a separate scheme or as a bolt-on to Entry Level Stewardship, he suggested.

"We think £500/ha would be a suitable payment. If 50% of farms adopted it, it would cost about £7.5m."

Potentially that could be funded either through modulation or, perhaps, the forthcoming CAP health check would free up funding, he suggested.

Farmers and birds could both benefit from 1% set aside.