Boon for birds to be set-aside

[WD-40]

News from the RSPB site

Uncropped farmland has proved a boon for declining birds but could soon be cultivated for food and fuel instead.

The EU is about to abandon its 1992 'set-aside' requirement where a portion of a farm's land had to be left fallow to reduce grain mountains. Farmers will retain their set-aside fee and the RSPB is proposing that the wildlife benefits of set-aside be reproduced by creating smaller, managed areas of fallow land.

A series of meetings at Westminster will determine whether farmland birds in England are helped in other ways when set-aside disappears.

Gareth Morgan, Head of Agriculture Policy at the RSPB, said: 'This is a crucial time for farmland birds, especially species in decline. Many of them have benefited from set-aside because of the plants and insects it has come to harbour.

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[Chocky]

Thank you for that info Robert