AHW11: Cultivated areas for arable plants

The following changes have been made to this action for SFI26 (compared with the SFI24 version):

• you can now put all or part of a parcel's available area into this action – this only applies to SFI26 agreements, not existing SFI23 and SFI24 agreements
• minor updates to standard wording which appears in all area-based SFI actions

This action’s aim is that there are fallow cultivated margins or plots with:

• a fine surface suitable for wild arable plants to establish from the soil seed bank when they’re cultivated in the spring or autumn
• natural vegetative cover throughout the growing season until the end of the summer

The purpose of this is to:

• allow scarce and declining wild arable plants to increase their populations over time
• provide areas of less densely vegetated ground for insects, such as bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies
• provide summer foraging habitats for farmland birds, such as grey partridge and turtle dove

What you must do

You must create a fallow margin or plot by cultivating it in the spring or autumn in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim.

You must manage the fallow cultivated margin or plot in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim.

You must not do the following on the fallow cultivated margin or plot:

• disturb it before the end of the summer months (usually around the end of August)
• use it as regular access tracks for vehicles
• apply any fertilisers, manures or lime
• apply pesticides, except for herbicides to weed wipe or spot treat to control injurious weeds, invasive non-native species, nettles or bracken

You can use an existing cultivated fallow margin or plot to get paid for this action if it:

• meets this action’s requirements
• is not already being paid for under another environmental land management scheme action or option, such as CS option AB11 (cultivated areas for arable plants)

When to do it

You must do this action each year of its 3-year duration.

If this action’s start date means it’s too late for you to create the fallow margin or plot, you must create it within 12 months of its start date.

In the final year of this action’s duration, you must do the action until the end of the summer months or this action’s end date, whichever is earlier.

Where you can do it

You can do this action on agricultural land located below the moorland line that’s:

• an eligible land type (as defined in section 5.1.1 ‘Eligible land types’)
• registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
• declared with a land use code which is compatible with the eligible land cover

Rotational or static

This action is rotational or static. This means you can either:

• move its location for the second and third years of this action’s duration
• do it at the same location each year of this action’s duration

It counts toward the 25% limit

This is a ‘limited area’ action. The total eligible area you enter into any combination of one or more of the ‘limited area’ actions must not be more than 25% of the total agricultural area of your farm. Read section 4.5 ‘Limited area SFI actions’ in the SFI26 scheme information for details (including a list of the ‘limited area’ actions).

Evidence to keep

You must keep evidence to show what you’ve done to complete this action, such as:

• field operations at a land parcel level and associated invoices
• photographs or other documentation

If it’s not clear that you’ve done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, we may ask for this evidence.

You must supply the evidence if we ask for it.