Syngenta seed mixes enhance environmental assets

01 April 2022, UK: Environmental seed mixes available this season from Syngenta will help growers deliver results for environmental enhancements and soil protection.

Payment rates for many options within Countryside Stewardship have now increased, making it more attractive for growers to consider creating habitats supporting farmland biodiversity, highlighted Syngenta Sustainable Farming Manager, Belinda Bailey.

“Planted in early-May, the Operation Pollinator Bees’n’Seeds mix is ideally suited to provide the dual-purpose of flowers to give pollen and nectar that attracts pollinators and beneficial insects through the summer, followed by an ample supply of feed for farmland birds over winter,” she advised.  

“Options within the Countryside Stewardship scheme, where growers can select elements that best fit with their farm’s specific situation can give income security across some of the least productive land – and can be accommodated without impinging on overall productivity,” she advised.

Furthermore, with soil health a key focus for the Sustainable Farming Initiative cover crops are expected to have an increasingly important role in the soil, arable and integrated pest management standards in the future, she believes.

The Syngenta Green Headland mix planted on uncropped lands over the summer has been proven through scientific research to deliver significant benefits in nutrient capture, biomass improvement and protection of soil structure.

“Where it has been grown alongside potato, vegetable and cereal crops, for example, there is also real interest from consumers for the positive enhancement it can deliver to the farm’s biodiversity and ecology,” reported Mrs Bailey.

“Agronomic trials have shown the beneficial pollinators and predatory insects attracted to the Green Headlands could have a valuable role for Integrated Pest management in the crop.”