Four-point plan to benefit from green schemes

FOLLOW WILDLIFE advice to maximise benefits from the new generation of agri-environmental schemes, the Game Conservancy Trust urges growers.

The GCT recommends that farmers concentrate on four key areas:

• Ensure land is IACS registered.


• Create a conservation headland.


• Create a beetle bank across fields.


• Develop a hedgerow management plan – ideally, cut every third year.

Future government schemes will see farmers paid to improve biodiversity, says the GCT”s Peter Thompson.

“To benefit from these new agri-environmental schemes, people really need to start the planning process now so that they can reap the rewards when the Entry Level Scheme starts later this year.”