BIRDS, bees and other wildlife flourish in more intensely farmed fields, according to a new study by economists.
Researchers were surprised to discover that fields with higher crop yields also had increased levels of biodiversity, with insects, birds, animals and plants able to thrive.
Dr Noel Russell, one of the authors of the study, said the results showed
farmers did not have to see their crop production suffer if they used techniques that cater for wildlife.
"We found that as biodiversity goes up, yield also goes up," he said. "So it shows that attempts to increase yields are not incompatible with increasing biodiversity."
The data was collected at a time when the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) launched a funding scheme to encourage farmers to manage their land to conserve wildlife, Environmental Stewardship Schemes.
Dr Russell said the research showed policies that subsidise farmers to protect the environment are working to a certain extent. The scientists were analysing biodiversity levels on fields in East Anglia, one of the most intensively farmed parts of the UK. They analysed yields from 230 fields over 12 years and compared them with levels of wildlife biodiversity. The landscape is covered in barley and wheat fields, as well as expanses of oilseed rape.
Dr Russell said: "We were looking at an area where there has been intensive farming for many generations. In a sense, the damage has been done. What we are saying really is that things can get better.
"It is possible to improve while at the same time increasing yields. There is this idea that in order to improve biodiversity you have to put up with decreased yields, but this suggests that is not the case."
The authors of the study "Biodiversity Conservation and Productivity in Intensive Agricultural Systems", published in the Journal of Agricultural Economics, think the findings challenge critics of modern farming who argue that intensive methods, such as mechanical ploughing, crop-spraying and mechanisation, are not compatible with biodiversity conservation.
Dr Russell, who is based at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester, said: "Our analysis shows that higher-yielding, more-intensive farms are not necessarily those that are doing most damage to ecological habitats in the countryside.
"Many farmers have been willing to reinvest – or forgo – some of their profits to conserve and improve biodiversity, and that has borne fruit, according to our findings. These include conservation headlands, buffer strips, beetle banks, skylark plots and precautions against soil erosion."
He said crops can benefit from diverse wildlife, with creatures such as bees, fungi and birds able to pollinate crops, improve the soil, control pests and other factors to increase yields.
The study, a PhD project, made use of crop-yield data provided by Defra's Farm Business Survey and compared it with wildlife levels in fields provided by the Countryside Survey for the period 1989 to 2000.
It was carried out by Cambridge University and the University of Manchester.
BEE PROBLEMS CREATING A BUZZ
BUMBLEBEES, which are crucial for pollinating crops, have suffered a dramatic drop in population in the UK. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust warned last month that these declines could be catastrophic.
Honeybee populations are also being devastated in the UK and North America by Colony Collapse Disorder, also known as Marie Celeste Syndrome – previously sound hives are deserted, for no obvious reason, by most or all of the bees.
The full article contains 578 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
