“Its not about ‘signing up’ it’s about actually participating. And there are a number of ways of doing that – by either renewing an existing ELS agreement or entering ELS for the first time, by considering at least one voluntary measure or by retaining some uncropped land. The good news is that in a recent Defra survey it was found that 85% of farmers surveyed had heard about the effort to recapture the benefits of set-aside and that many were already managing land voluntarily£ NFU Countryside Adviser.

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