Sustainable Arable Farming For an Improved Environment (SAFFIE)

Our work has shown that conventionally-farmed winter wheat does not contain enough invertebrates for farmland birds. However, this can be mitigated by establishing conservation headlands or by creating other insect-rich habitats.

The Sustainable Arable Farming for an Improved Environment (SAFFIE) project was a collaborative project which aimed to develop these ideas and improve farmland biodiversity.

We were involved in three experiments within this project.

• Experiment 1.1 - Crop management to increase biodiversity [read more].
  
• Experiment 1.2 - Weed management to increase beneficial weeds [read more].
  
• Experiment 3 - Integrated effects of  crop and margin management [read more].

The full report from the project and practical guidelines derived from the research are available from HGCA.

Research partners:

• ADAS
• British Trust for Ornithology
• Centre for Agri-Environmental Research (University of Reading)
• Centre for Ecology and HydrologyCrop Protection Association
• Central Science Laboratory
• Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
• RSPB
• Syngenta

Industrial partners:

• British Potato Council
• Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC)
• Crop Protection Association
• Home-Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA)
• Jonathan Tipples 
• Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF)
• National Trust
• Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
• Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd
• Syngenta
• Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC

 Government sponsors:

• Defra (LK0926)
• SEERAD
• English Nature