FARMERS and landowners who do nothing for conservation or the environment must be put under pressure to do so.

Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, national president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), said peer pressure should be applied.

He was speaking before the recent annual meeting of the Yorkshire CLA at Newby Hall, near Ripon.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn is prepared to allow a voluntary rather than compulsory scheme, as long as enough farmers and land is involved.

The CLA and National Farmers’ Union (NFU) have fought for a voluntary approach and have proposed a minimum of 350,880 acres of arable farmland being managed for the environment.

But Sir Henry said it was vital that as many farmers and landowners as possible take part for the voluntary approach to succeed.

The alternative would be the introduction of onerous cross-compliance measures.

The president said there had been a positive reaction from farmers with 80 per cent saying anything was better than cross-compliance.

“A lot are already doing something but up to 20pc are not and we must persuade them to do so by peer pressure and the threat of crosscompliance,”

said Sir Henry.

He said surprisingly little needed to be done to achieve what was required – even only using awkward corners in fields or having grass margins down the side of fields.