The natural benefits of modern agriculture

May 12 2008 by Tom Patterson, The Journal

ECO-friendly plant and animal life thrive in intensively managed cereal farms alongside increasing crop yields, according to the first study of its kind.

Analysis of 230 farms by researchers from Manchester and Cambridge universities shows that government and EU policies which subsidise farmers to protect the environment are – to some degree – working.

The findings contradict those critics of modern farming who argue that intensive methods such as mechanical ploughing, crop spraying and mechanisation are not compatible with biodiversity conservation.

Economist Dr Noel Russell of Manchester University says that farms with higher yields tend to have higher levels of beneficial insects, birds, mammals and fungi.

Eco-friendly species are able to pollinate crops, improve the soil, control pests and other factors to increase crop yields.

Wheat is the most dominant UK cereal crop occupying over 18% of the total land. It is followed next by Barley.

Dr Russell 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.

“This means the natural benefits of some of our plant and animal life to wheat, barley and other types of cereal farming need not be compromised by modern agriculture.”