Natural England - Organic Entry Level Stewardship including Uplands OELS

Organic Entry Level Stewardship including Uplands OELS

The aim of Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS), including Uplands OELS, is to encourage a large number of farmers across England who manage all or part of their land organically to deliver simple yet effective environmental management.

This voluntary, non-competitive scheme allows you to choose from a wide range of options to cover all farming types. The land to be entered into the scheme must be farmed organically and registered with an approved Organic Inspection Body before an application to OELS is made.

How does OELS, including Uplands OELS, work?

Five-year agreements are available, with payments sent out every six months. The standard payment rate is £60 per hectare per year. There are higher payments for Uplands OELS - up to £92 per ha. 

Aid for converting conventionally farmed improved land and established top-fruit orchards (planted with pears, plums, cherries and apples, excluding cider apples) is also available as a top-up to OELS payments. Payment rates are £175 per hectare per year for two years for improved land and £600 per hectare per year for three years for established top fruit orchards.

Farmers with a mix of organic and conventional land can apply for OELS on their OELS eligible land and ELS on the remainder at the applicable ELS payment rates as part of one, whole farm, OELS agreement.

Uplands OELS

Uplands ELS (including enhanced support for organic farmers) was launched in February with new agreements starting from 1 July 2010. For more information about Uplands ELS please see our leaflet Look after your uplands with Environmental Stewardship.  If you would like to attend one of our Uplands ELS events in your region, please see our Farm events page or call 0113 230 3753.

A guidance note has been produced by the Tenancy Reform Industry Group (TRIG) considering issues for graziers, tenants and landlords arising from the introduction of Uplands ELS.

The application process

To apply for an OELS agreement, including Uplands OELS, please contact our North West regional office at Crewe.

OELS application guidance documents

The following documents will help you with your application for agreements to start on or after 1 February 2010:

Existing agreements

If you have an existing agreement that started between October 2008 and December 2009 you should refer to:

If you have an existing agreement that started before October 2008 you should refer to:

Find out more

You can find out more about the scheme by attending one of our Farm events.

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