§ Lord Melchettasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they consider that the extremely brief mentions of environmental conservation, in three out of over 200 paragraphs of text and in one of over 70 tables, in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's Report on Research and Development 1983–84, accurately reflect the priority given by MAFF to environmental conservation issues during the period covered by the report.
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Lord Belstead)Environmental considerations are taken increasingly into account in382WA determining the Ministry's research and development programme. In its evidence submitted last year to the Select Committee on Science and Technology the Ministry indicated the wide range of its current projects which were concerned with the interaction between the agriculture, fisheries and food industries and the environment.
The department's involvement in conservation does of course extend far beyond its R & D programme. These further measures include the promotion of conservation attitudes and practices among farmers by the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service; the priority given to certain environmentally beneficial agricultural operations in its farm capital grants schemes; its initiative in attempting to secure meaningful environmental amendments to the new European Community Agricultural Structures regulation; its extensive involvement in the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group movement; its participation in the Countryside Commission's new experimental scheme to encourage traditional grazing practices in the Broads; and its proposal, with the Department of the Environment, to designate the Broads under Section 41 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Altogether this represents a major contribution towards achieving the right balance between the needs of agriculture and of conservation.