§ Mr. TylerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what recent research he has carried out on the impact on biodiversity of(a) organic and (b) conventional farming methods. [118570]
§ Ms QuinA number of comparative studies have been funded by the Ministry. A desk study was completed in 1998 which compared the effects on biodiversity of conventional, organic and integrated farming systems. This summarised the results of previous field-based research, and concluded that organic regimes showed an overall benefit for biodiversity at the farm level. A new field-based project started in 1999 to determine to what extent any biodiversity differences between organic and conventional farms are caused by differences in non-crop habitats.
Other recent research includes projects to assess the impact of conventional agriculture on farmland bird populations, the effects of pesticides on non-target species (including indirect effects on birds), the causes of changes on botanical diversity on farmland, and the causes of changes in brown hare populations. The Ministry is also co-funding the Countryside Survey 2000 project which focuses on an assessment of the extent of changes in botanical diversity on farmland.