Table Of Content

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CONTENTS MAFF Environmental Research and Development 2 The Research and Development Strategy Protecting the Rural Environment Farm Woodlands and Set-Aside Protecting Water Supplies and Rivers Protecting Soil and the Land 12 Protecting the Air 14 Pests and Pesticides 16 Genetic Conservation and Modification 20 Climate Change 26 Flood and Coastal Defence 28 HIONOUNA “i |: wy) AFF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Ee and woodland cover nine tenths of our country. As well as producig most of our food, and providing a small but increasing amount ofo ur timber, they offer us all a great deal ofp leasure and ernyoyment. Indeed, people have rightly come to expect farmers and foresters to be environmental managers as well as production directors and businessmen. The same goes for our fishing community. We recognise this dual responsibility in our policies for the countryside and for marine resources, which are firmly based on the integration of economic and environmental aims, the conservation and improvement of landscape, habitat and the marine environment, and on the protection of the land from flooding and erosion. Ift hey are to succeed as we would wish, our policies need to be supported by the best possible understanding of the interaction ofm an and the environment, both in the immediate and the longer term. Tb secure that understanding, MAFF will be spending about £50 million in 1991/92 on environmental research and development (RSD). This publication is a brief guide to what we are doing and how we make the knowledge that we gain available to all who can benefit from it. T hope that you will find this resumé useful and that it will encourage you to take an even closer interest in our programme of environmental RSD. = nae —— THE BARONESS TRUMPINGTON Minister of State Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food | Mare than half ourfoodcomes = from the farms which covernine- = tenths of the land in the UK. HE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY Marrs environmental research and development (R&D) strategy is principally determined by the policy requirements of the Ministry, which range from the improvement and more effective enforcement of statutory controls to the promotion of alternative uses for land at a time of surplus agricultural production. The R&D is not ‘science for science’s sake’ but a managed programme which plays an essential role in the formulation and evaluation of policies as well as in their practical application. To ensure that the work is closely integrated with existing policies, as well as anticipated future problems, the officials responsible for policy formulation have the budget for the R&D. Decisions on the content of the programme are taken in consultation with the Ministry’s Chief Scientists as well as other professional and scientific experts. The Ministry also undertakes academic bodies. In addition, Other Government departments work in the general public MAFF’s Agricultural also undertake environmental interest, and supports strategic Development and Advisory research. It is therefore research to underpin the Service (ADAS) and the Central important that the various development of new Science Laboratory — including programmes are properly technologies and techniques. its Experimental Husbandry co-ordinated. To ensure that the Farms (EHFs) — undertake work national programme is balanced Much of the environmental R&D for the Ministry. The Royal and comprehensive, the United funded by the Ministry is Botanic Gardens at Kew carries Kingdom Agriculture Ministers commissioned with outside out basic research under a grant- and the Chairman of the AFRC organisations, including the in-aid from MAFF. are advised by the independent Agricultural and Food Research Priorities Board for Research Council (AFRC), the Natural Environmental R&D is highly and Development in Agriculture Environment Research Council labour-intensive. Much of it is and Food. (NERC) and other institutes and based on painstaking fieldwork and observation, often involving In addition, the private sector the making of measurements carries out environmental over many years. It may research. If the maximum also involve detailed and benefits are to be derived from sophisticated laboratory analyses both public and private R&D and experiments aimed at there must be clear lines of interpreting the field results. communication between them. To achieve this, the Priorities Over half a million people depend for their livelihoods on farming, fishing and forestry. Board is assisted by six Advisory Sectoral Groups (ASGs) which MAFF is responsibfloer: scrutinise research programmes and requirements in different m the protection and enhancement of the countryside and fisheries; areas and provide opportunities @ the safety and quality of the nation’s food supplies; for the exchange ofi deas and m the protection of the land against flooding and coastal erosion. opinions on research needs. The Advisory Group on the The Mimstry undertakes a comprehenswe, balanced and far-sighted programme Environment Sector includes of environmental research and development to inform and guide its policies. representatives of the Department of the Environment, the Natural Breakdown of MAFF expenditure Environment Research Council, on research & development: 1991/92. the National Rivers Authority, Animal Health and Welfare the Forestry Commission, and conservation and environmental Arable Crops & Food Science organisations as well as the Livestock Products Agriculture Departments and the AFRC. Of course, the Ministry is also liaising with our EC partners in order to pool information and avoid duplication of R&D effort. Environment Protecting the rural environment, water supplies and rivers, soil and the land, the air, fisheries, the marine environment; and farm woodlands and set-aside, pest and pesticides, genetic conservation and-modification, climate change, and flood and coastal defence. ROTECTING THE RURAL ENVIRONMENT The countryside has undergone The Ministry’s R&D strategy for significant changes since 1945, protecting the rural many of them due to the environment is designed modernisation and primarily to provide the intensification of farming scientific basis for the techniques. These led to a development and evaluation of reduction in semi-natural the Ministry’s policies for habitats and in biological protecting and enhancing the diversity. From the 1980s, countryside. This programme however, there has been currently costs about £1.6ma increasing concern over year. Much of the work is focused F. safeguarding the rural on issues arising from the eer ee ee eee ; ; ; important landscape features in environment, a concern which operation of the eS ETN the Ministry seeks to meet by Environmentally Sensitive Areas encouraging landowners, (ESAs) which have been farmers and growers to protect designated across England and and enhance the countryside by Wales. modifying their farming practices. Twelve localities in England and Wales where the landscape and wildlife are of special importance, but particularly vulnerable to the impact of agricultural mtensification, have been designated as Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs). In these Areas, farmers are paid to retain and enhance the landscape features and habitats. These ESAs now form part of a European Commumity-wide scheme set PENNINE BES ~~ up on the Ministry’ initiative. os os ~ : LLEYN PENINSU! CAMBRIAN @ SHROPSHIRE AY ~ BRECKLAN MOUNTAINS BORDERS ’ SUFFOLK RIVER VALLEYS. aa ‘ The ESAs of England and Wales. SOUTH DOWNS SOMERSET LEVELS AND MOORS WEST PENWITH EE PIII ES agg usa ePID Mikelatele(-teMal-tehiit-\a | burning regenerates old stands of heather. Wor at Redesdale EHF examines the effect of grazing pressure and seasonal grazing on the regeneration of heather i Somerset Levels and Moors ESA is which can be seen here with the an important area for birds. Heather Moorland height and health of the heather. One of the most important projects in the rural environment programme The Agriculture Act 1986 places an obligation on Ministers to achieve a balance concerns the damage done to between: heather moorland. Damage can m the promotion and maintenance ofa stable and efficient agriculture industry; occur naturally, as it did in the m the economic and social interests of rural areas; North York Moors National Park m the conservation of the natural beauty and amenity of the countryside; and in the drought year of 1976, for m the promotion of the enjoyment of the countryside by the public. instance. Here, fires started accidentally were followed by heavy rain, leading to serious soil grazing on hill farms. Ata The effects of different stocking erosion. The soil surface then number of its Experimental levels on the rate of recovery of had to be stabilised to allow the Husbandry Farms, including degraded heather are examined heather to recover. The Redesdale in Northumberland, within plots and on a farm scale, Ministry’s R&D, some ofi t the Ministry is developing alongside other factors like undertaken in collaboration with systems of hill pasture seasonal grazing, burning and the National Park Authority, is management, which combine topping. A range of techniques designed to see if the methods the efficient use of indigenous are used within the plant and used there can be applied vegetation by grazing animals animal studies. On one farm site successfully elsewhere. with the preservation of the structure and dynamics of the Damage to moorland has also native plant and invertebrate occurred as a result of intensive communities. ROTECTING THE RURAL ENVIRONMENT ; | the botanical work alone requires examining ways in which the the collection of 26,000 separate variety of species can be pieces of information each year. extended. Aerial photography and computer-based analysis are At Swavesey Fen in East Anglia, a used as well to determine the database of hydrological and range of factors influencing farm management information recovery. is being built up in order to determine the effect of varying This project is of great water levels on the diversity of importance in determining what flora and fauna. strategies to use for the regeneration and maintenance On the Somerset Moors, the of upland heath communities. AFRC Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) Species Diversity is studying the changes in the Modern farming techniques botanical composition of have reduced the range of species-rich grassland due to the species in the rural environment. sustained application of A series of R&D projects is fertiliser. In the first stage of the therefore exploring the impact study, fertiliser treatment will of such techniques and continue across a series of plots Wor on the inoculation of of land so as to establish a base bracken with myco-herbicides. measurement, Then the plots will be divided, with fertiliser being completely withheld from half of them. Finally, some plots will be subject to a variety of treatments to encourage greater botanical diversity. These - Grass Ley Undrained Grass ley Drained | Grass Undrained = Grass Drained Arable Undrained Arable Drained Urban Monitoring water levels and flora and fauna helps us to understand the effects of changing agricultural practices. ERE ESET SEE ESE EDA IS EBERLE LOREONE D | ae a Ae ge Me ie ) -A stata mtb sate n uncropped strip in Breckland has resulted in picturesque and diverse flora. include physical disturbance of rich grassland, on the other associated with farmland. At the the grassland to produce space hand, may reduce overall grass same time, many farmers regard for the germination of species in yield and as a consequence these areas as reservoirs of weeds the ‘seed bank present in the soil, reduce animal output and and pests. It is, therefore, and the introduction of seeds profitability. We need to know important to develop a full from adjoining areas which have more about the precise effects on understanding of the impact of received no fertiliser. costs and how these can be farming on diversity and minimised. So IGER is inter-species competition in the Current grassland management undertaking a project which flora and fauna of semi-natural practices are designed to aims to provide costed options habitats. The Ministry is funding produce high grass yields and for the management of studies of non-crop habitats with optimum levels of animal output species-rich grassland. the aim of developing by using high inputs of fertiliser management strategies which and intensive grazing Field Boundaries will benefit wildlife while management. Consequently, The intensive use of pesticides maintaining weed control about 90% of the grassland in and fertilisers has been widely efficiency. England and Wales has come to blamed for causing serious be dominated by perennial damage to the semi-natural ryegrass. Introducing species- habitats, such as field edges, “I ARM WOODLANDS AND SET-ASIDE .,o rder to counter the problem When trees are planted on land The effects of woodland of surplus agricultural previously under arable plantings on the discharge of production, the Ministry has cultivation, the soil is so fertile water and nitrate from former introduced a number of schemes that, unless there is proper weed arable land are also being designed to provide farmers with control, the saplings will be studied. an alternative source of income overwhelmed and the plantation and to reduce the production of will fail. The R&D programme is Planting broadleaved woodlands certain foodstuffs. Among these investigating a variety of ways of on farms is likely to reduce the are the Farm Woodland and the controlling weeds, including quantity of water discharging by Set-aside Schemes. Both have different plantation layouts, the surface and subsurface drainage. significant environmental use of wide uncultivated strips In time, it should also reduce implications and are the subject between tree rows, and the nitrate leaching; partly because of environmental research and planting of grass or wild flowers the trees themselves will take up development work as well as to inhibit weed growth. nitrate and partly because there monitoring and evaluation. Rabbit populations are is little soil disturbance under increasing nationally, so work is established woodland. To test The development of farm also in progress on effective these assumptions, the ADAS woodlands is supported by an methods for countering rabbit Field Drainage Experimental R&D programme currently damage to trees and to other Unit at Cambridge is examining costing around £1.7m a year. crops on the farm. changes in local hydrology and The main objective is the drainage water quality where development of cost-effective Other aspects of farm woodland trees have been planted after methods of establishing and R&D include studies of novel intensive arable farming. maintaining woodlands on land forms of tree production and that has previously been under systems which combine the Set-Aside arable cultivation. planting of trees with farming. Research and development in support of the Set-aside scheme includes trials on the Ministry's Experimental Husbandry Farms to study the management options for set-aside land and Set-aside their implications for the spread of pests, weeds and diseases. Set-aside is a European Community scheme under which farmers receive Research is also taking place on compensation when they withdraw at least 20% of thew land from arable the effects of nitrate leaching production. The scheme provides farmers with an alternative source of income and on the husbandry while they adjust to the effect ofp rice reductions. It also imposes a number of requirements of crops that might environmental obligations, including restrictions on the use off ertilisers and subsequently be grown on such pestcides and a requirement to maintain certain environmental features. In land. seven counties in the east of England, the Countryside Commission offers additional incentives to farmers who manage their set-aside land in ways which bring specific environmental benefits such as the creation ofw ildlife habitats. The Ministry is considering developing a similar scheme on a nationwide basis.