Table Of ContentSCIENTIFIC 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
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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
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up on the Ministry’ initiative.
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LLEYN PENINSU!
CAMBRIAN @ SHROPSHIRE AY ~ BRECKLAN
MOUNTAINS BORDERS ’
SUFFOLK RIVER
VALLEYS.
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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
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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.
