Following advice from an advisory group, Benn has agreed to implement a plan that will succeed the set-aside scheme, which encouraged farmers to leave ten per cent of their land to grow wild, but was scrapped last year to boost food production.

The new proposals, which will come into force next year, will reward farmers with extra payments, under the existing Environmental Stewardship scheme, for managing small areas of farmland for the benefit of wildlife. Methods such as leaving grass buffers between fields and managing small areas of land less intensively would provide cover and nesting sites for many endangered British birds.

The announcement has been welcomed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which said it will be of particular benefit to farmland birds, many of which have declined by almost 50 per cent during the past 40 years.

‘Many much-loved birds such as skylarks, yellowhammers and lapwings have been thrown a lifeline by this decision, which will help bring birdsong back to many parts of the countryside,' said Gareth Morgan, head of agriculture policy at the RSPB. 'This is a massive step forward for the environment. Set-aside was never supposed to help wildlife but, with so much other land farmed so heavily, it became a sanctuary for many species.'

October 2008