Call out to farmers to take part in a survey about IPM and what it means to you!

Increasingly, farmers and other land managers are looking for ways to reduce their reliance on pesticides. This is due to a number of reasons including concern for the environment, concern for their health, concern about their soil health and concern about cost. As we move towards new land management schemes that will pay farmers for delivering public goods, it is a good time to make whole-farm changes that will lead to pesticides not being relied upon in the way they often are currently.

A new project funded by Farming the Future is designed to help with some of the peer-to-peer learning and knowledge transfer that will be absolutely vital for farmers to make these changes and have the confidence that another way is possible.

Later in 2021, we will be running a series of webinars and producing a number of case studies that will showcase different stories and nature-friendly techniques across a variety of farm sizes and types. We will share details of these as they become available.

In the meantime, we would really like to hear from farmers about your current experiences with crop protection and integrated pest management (IPM). We have developed a simple survey, that will tell us what IPM measures you currently take, what the challenges are, and what else would be important for you to have access to in order to go further on your pesticide reduction journey.

Whether you are an organic, conventional, long-time regenerative farmer, just starting off on this journey, or not sure where to begin, we’d love to hear from you.

The short survey can be found here and we would like it to be filled in by 30th June please. It is anonymous, so no need to leave any personal details.

Many thanks in advance for your time, and if you have any questions on this project, please feel free to get in touch with Steph Morren

Project partners are RSPB, the Soil Association, Nature Friendly Farming Network, Pesticide Action Network UK and CoFarm Foundation

Stephanie Morren writes of herself "I work for the RSPB as a senior policy officer and am passionate about wildlife and the countryside. I love hearing about all the inspiring ways farmers are supporting biodiversity and want to do my best to ensure that policies support sustainable farming. In my previous role I worked on projects supporting farmland species recovery, including the iconic turtle dove and lapwing."

Header image courtesy of Colin Wilkinson, RSPB