Intensive farming is fine for birds and bees. Eco-friendly plant and animal life have been thriving in intensively managed cereal farms alongside increasing crop yields, according to the first study of its kind.

And what is more, encouraging the birds and bees and plants can help farm productivity. An analysis of 230 farms by researchers from the universities of Manchester and Cambridge shows that Government and EU policies which subsidise farmers
to protect the environment are – at least to some degree – working.

These findings challenge critics of modern intensive farms who argue that their mechanical ploughing,
crop spraying and giant machinery are not compatible with biodiversity.

Economist Dr Noel Russell from the University of Manchester says that farms with higher yields tend to have higher levels of beneficial insects, birds, mammals and fungi – though levels are still low.

These eco-friendly species are able to pollinate crops, improve the soil, control pests and other factors to increase crop yields.

Wheat is the most dominant UK cereal crop occupying over 18 per cent of the total land on agricultural holdings in England followed by barley. The report concludes that the damaging effects on the environment of growing large areas of single crops such as these is well established – but less attention is given to the economic part played by biodiversity. Increasing the number of species on a farm may cut productivity levels of the main crop in the short run. But their effects – through pollination, soil nutrient enhancement and pest control – may increase agricultural output in the longer term.

It suggests this has important implications
for the design of agri-environmental policy and the introduction of biodiversity conservation policies offers a win–win scenario. But if biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is to be enhanced without reducing productivity in intensified agricultural systems, the correct incentives must be put in place.

Dr Russell, who is based at the School of Social Sciences, said: "Our analysis shows that higher yielding more intensive farms are not necessarily those that are doing most damage to ecological habitats in the countryside. Many farmers have been willing to reinvest – or forego – some of their profits to conserve and improve biodiversity and that has borne fruit according to our findings.

"The improvement is roughly in line with when the Government launched its environmental stewardship schemes and the EU re-launched its common agricultural policy.

"This indicates that Government and EU policies – as well as the activities of farmers – are working. The results show that many farmers have been successfully using high-yielding sustainable technologies.

"These include conservation headlands, buffer strips along intensively managed fields or beside streams or ponds, beetle banks, skylark plots and precautions against
soil erosion."

The team tested the relationship between crop productivity and biodiversity using data from approximately 230 cereal producers from the East of England, for the period 1989–2000.

This was combined with data from the Countryside Survey over
that same period.