Stewardship Scheme Chaos

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Tuesday, 05 July 2005

The Government's flagship environmental farming scheme has collapsed into chaos because the software does not work, says the NFU.

The entry level stewardship scheme is meant to come into operation next month but a farmer may apply only after his woods, meadows and wetlands have been mapped. Farmers have complained that software used by Defra deletes fields or includes fields owned by someone else.

28,000 farmers have asked for application forms for the scheme but only 2,400 have succeeded in applying. Environment Minister, Margaret Beckett said that it was "not proceeding as we would wish."

Source: Daily Telegraph via www.soilassociation.org