UK seeks views on set-aside

The UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has asked for public views on two approaches of retaining the environmental benefits of set-aside. Obligatory set-aside was abolished in the EU in autumn 2008 in the face of low grain stocks ( Agrow No 547, p 9). But a compromise between EU Agriculture Ministers and the European Commission on the proposed revision of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) advocated stronger rules on maintaining non-cultivated buffer strips to offset the environmental impact of the move ( Agrow No 557, p 8).