SIR Donald Curry is the guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Barnard Castle branch of the NFU, to be held at the Moorcock Inn at Eggleston on Monday.

Sir Donald, who chaired the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food, will talk about a new agri-environment scheme, revealed by the D&S Times last month, which is to be piloted in the Barnard Castle area.

"This will give members an excellent opportunity to learn about the proposals and long term opportunities it might present to all farmers," said NFU branch secretary Phil Barber.

The scheme recommends a "broad and shallow" approach to environmental protection and agricultural support. It is due to begin next spring and will cover a large part of Teesdale to the west of Barnard Castle, but the exact boundaries have yet to be announced.

Mr Barber said that about 120 farms would be eligible to join the scheme and he was hopeful of getting at least 50 to apply. The idea was to include as many as possible and to encourage them to maintain the environmental and landscape features of their land and improve them for the benefit of the community.

The requirements will be for farmers to maintain walls, hedges, woodland features, archaeological sites and traditional buildings in return for an annual payment.

The pilot is one of only four in the country and, if successful, will be the blueprint for a scheme that covers the whole country from 2005. Full details will become available to farmers in the new year.

"Once again we find Teesdale being chosen as a leading area for an agri-environmental scheme, and it reflects the importance of the area," said Mr Barber, pointing out that the dale had been at the forefront of managed SSIs and ESAs.

"I think it will be the type of scheme that many farmers feel they will be able to participate in and it will also acknowledge the considerable amount of work already done by them to protect and develop the local environment."

The meeting, which starts at 1pm, is open to all NFU members.