Field margins: the BUZZ Project

The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy is currently being overhauled, and in the future, subsidy payments to the farmer will become dependent upon the implementation of measures to increase farm wildlife. Many of the new agri-environmental measures will require the removal of a proportion of land from production, and (unlike set-aside) the explicit purpose of these areas will be to enhance the farmed environment for wildlife. It is essential that the different types of habitat creation being advised are:

The BUZZ Project (2002-2006) is being undertaken by CEH (ecological monitoring) and the Farmed Environment Company (FEC) (agronomy and margin management), with funding from Syngenta, Unilever and Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). The project spans six farms in widely separated localities across England, and compares six realistic field margin prescriptions, each of which is contained within existing or forthcoming agri-environment schemes, in terms of the invertebrate numbers and species each attracts.

The project also looks at vegetation succession, and the use of a four-species mix to provide a standing crop of seed for the benefit of farmland birds in winter. No previous experiment of this type has covered the geographic spread or the range of soil types, nor included the range of taxa, as does the BUZZ project.

Early results have shown that valuable habitat can be recreated quickly on farms, and these can produce a rapid response in terms of biodiversity, with correct management during the first year (establishment) the key to success. Although plots containing sown wildflowers are those most commonly preferred, mixed preferences by farmland invertebrates indicate the importance of heterogeneity in the farmed environment.