Victoria Hicks, National CFE Coordinator, explains why you’re only 11 questions away from becoming a vital CFE statistic…
“It’s imperative that all farmers respond to the Defra postal survey this year to help us create a clear and reliable picture of what farmers have achieved through the Campaign. This will be the last ever survey to assess the land area managed under the CFE, which makes it an important set of data to collect.
With only 11 questions to complete and a table to record any land meeting, or nearly meeting, the CFE’s voluntary measures you’ll have finished it whilst listening to an episode of the Archers! The first few questions are centred on your understanding and awareness of the Campaign but then the focus changes towards your environmental management for the cropping year 2011 to 2012.
The survey will be sent to 5,500 farmers, chosen at random, who have more than 10ha of arable land. If you’ve received the survey in previous years however, you will not receive it this February.
Last year, we had a very good response rate at 67 per cent (thanks to all those who completed it!) but we really need more responses to this year’s survey. As many of you will be aware, the Campaign is due for Ministerial assessment this summer and it’s the Defra survey that’s responsible for collecting the official figures for voluntary land management under the CFE. Completing the survey will therefore create a vital picture as to how the CFE has performed in achieving some of its targets. It aims to prove that you, the custodians of the countryside, are indeed best placed to manage and tackle your local environmental priorities.
One target this survey monitors is progress made towards the increase in land managed voluntarily by 50,000ha. You will be asked if you have put any land into unpaid environmental management e.g. outside of ELS and/or HLS, or if you’ve left any cultivatable land out of production. Any land that you have put into Campaign voluntary measures needs to meet our essential management requirements.
If you’re not sure what these are then visit our website www.cfeonline.org.uk for the Guide to Voluntary Measures booklet that details all of the requirements for each voluntary measure. A list of these will also be included with the survey for your reference. It’s possible that you may already be meeting our essential requirements without realising you are a supporter!
So, if you’re one of the lucky 5,500 to receive a Defra envelope on your doormat around the middle of February, please don’t snub it; a little bit of paperwork now could save you a lot of costly burden in the future.
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