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Birds, plants thrive on UK organic farms -study

Posted on: Wednesday, 3 August 2005, 08:46 CDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Birds and bats and wild plants are thriving on Britain's organic farms, a study by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) said on Wednesday.

On organic farms, there are 109 percent more wild plants and 85 percent more plant species than on non-organic farms.

Organic farms support 32 percent more birds and 35 percent more bats than non-organic farms, the BTO, a charity carrying out independent research on birds, said.

There are also 5 percent more bird species on organic farms, according to the study which was funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Smaller fields and thicker hedges on organic farms and the fact that these farms don't use agrochemicals are all contributory factors, the study found. "Organic farms clearly have positive biodiversity effects for wild flowers. However if they are to provide benefits on the same scale for species that need more space, like birds, we either need the farms to be larger or for neighboring farms to be organic too," Dr Rob Fuller, director of Habitat Research for the BTO said.

Just three percent of English farmland is organic, he added.

The Soil Association, which promotes organic farming, also welcomed the study.

"A greater area of organically-managed land in the UK would help restore the farmland wildlife that has been lost from our countryside in recent decades with intensive farming," Soil Association policy manager Gundula Azeez said.

The data was collected from 160 farms.

Source: REUTERS

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