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How a Sussex arable farmer is preparing for the ELM scheme >More in
Taking 16% of his arable land out of production and introducing measures which will improve the farm’s natural capital are how West Sussex grower Mark Chandler is preparing his arable business for the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme.
Instead of extending an existing Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement for another 12 months, he has opted to use Mid Tier Countryside Stewardship to fund the landscape scale changes that he is making at Moor Farm, near Petworth.
These include creating linear habitat by establishing in-field flowering strips to encourage beneficial insects, using overwinter cover crops ahead of spring cropping, making the best use of two-year legume fallows on unproductive ground, and creating areas of wild bird cover.