Farmers would be keen to extend hedgerows in a bid to boost nature – if the right support was on offer, according to a new report.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CRPE), garnered more than 1,100 responses to its Farmers’ Hedgerows Report.
The results reveal a willingness of farmers to extend the UK’s hedgerow network, but that they are calling for more support from government to do so.
The results showed:
• Almost 90 per cent of farmers say hedgerows are important to them and their business, with the vast majority calling for more government support
• As the government finalises details of Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) funding, 70 per cent of farmers say they’d plant more hedgerows given the right incentives.
• Providing a vital nature corridor on farms was seen as the top benefit of hedgerows, followed by shelter for crops and livestock
• Eight in ten farmers support a target to increase hedgerows by 40 per cent by 2050 as a key climate and nature recovery goal
Tom Fyans, interim chief executive of CPRE, the countryside charity, said: “Farmers could not have been clearer about the value they place on hedgerows – they really care about supporting wildlife and nature on their land.
“The government needs to tap into their enthusiasm by using ELMs to provide simple, accessible schemes that support farmers to look after their hedgerows for everyone’s benefit.

“The hedgerow network, in its expanse, is our largest ‘nature reserve’. It provides forage, shelter and shade for animals; habitat for pollinators and pest predators; and absorbs carbon emissions while helping prevent both drought and flooding. That’s why CPRE is calling on the government to commit to the target of 40 per cent more hedgerows by 2050.”
The findings show farmers are keenly aware of the benefits of revitalising nature on their land.
Farmers surveyed revealed a lack of funding was by far the biggest obstacle to planting and maintaining hedgerows, despite wildlife and nature corridors being seen as the greatest benefit of hedgerows by almost nine in 10 farmers.
Other benefits include providing shelter or shade for crops or livestock, providing a home for pollinators and pest predators – and more than half of farmers simply recognising that hedgerows enhance the beauty of the countryside.
CRPE says the popularity of hedgerows among farmers suggests they could become a torch-bearer of the government’s new Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs).
The new schemes promise public money for public goods but over the past few weeks ELMs has been under review.
Philip Henneman, Dorset CPRE topic lead on hedgerows, said: “This national survey shows just how truly our farmers are the worthy custodians of the English countryside.
“Government financial engagement with the aims of CPRE’s 40 by 50 campaign would enable an historic turn-around in fortunes for the humble hedge, its wildlife, the countryside, and the wider environment.”

John Calder owns farmland in West Dorset, is participating in the Sustainable Farming Incentive Pilot (the fundamental element of ELMs) and has been working directly with Defra (the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs) on the Hedgerows Practitioners Work Group, a group looking for innovation in ELMs.
He is also the driver behind the ambitious Great Big Dorset Hedge survey, which has begun to chart the current status of hedgerows in Dorset which has been strongly supported by Dorset CPRE.
“Nobody should underestimate the enormity of the challenge DEFRA faces when catering for the wide variety of contradictory stakeholder inputs as they design the ELM scheme,” he said.
“Nor should they imagine that the DEFRA staff deployed to do this are lacking in diligence. However, much more work needs to be done to the Hedgerow component of ELMs for it to be fit for purpose.”