The Conversion Rate of UK Farmland to Organic is Slowing

Copyright (c) 2011 Alison Withers

The amount of land being converted to organic cultivation in the UK has gone down by around 60%, according to figures issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The reduction is being blamed in part on reduced demand from the country's major supermarkets as consumers cut back on food spending following the recession, rising prices and the rise in the cost of living.

In 2010 across the UK 51,000 hectares were going through the conversion process that is needed for land and practices to be certified as organic. This is less than half the amount of land in conversion in 2009.

However, this appears to be a trend specific to the UK, where sales of organic produce dropped by 5.9% through 2010, although the conversion rate remained strong across parts of Europe, according to the UK's Soil Association.

Research by the University of Reading comparing organic farming in the UK and Denmark has established that financial incentives, such as subsidies, had more impact than consumer demand on farmers considering going organic.

Farmers, however, argue that consumer demand is still strong, particularly when they can use sales routes other than big supermarket chains, such as box schemes and farmers' markets.

The Reading study identified key subsidy policies in the two countries that were statistically significant. In the UK the policies were all annual subsidies for organic farmers once conversion was complete. The Danish policies were the introduction of organic subsidies for non-dairy farms, the extension of subsidies beyond 1997 and support for the costs of marketing services.

The process of conversion from conventional to organic farming takes time because the soil has to be free of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides and this can take several years. The certification process also requires farmers to use natural pest and weed control methods, maintain habitat for wildlife, such as field margins and hedges, and use other environmentally sustainable farming practices.

The switch from synthetic fertilisers and pesticides to more natural farming methods has been helped in recent years by the work of the biopesticides developers, who research the substances to be found in the natural world.

The result has been a new range of "green" or low-chem agricultural products, called biopesticides, biofungicides and yield enhancers that can allow farmers to farm organically and sustainably without sacrificing yield or quality.

They leave no residue in the food or in the land thus satisfying consumers growing desire for chemical free, natural and healthy food and at the same time protecting the quality of the soil on which farming depends.

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