Natural England

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The aim of 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.

The key features of OELS are:

• Similar to ELS but recognises the greater environmental benefit that organic farming systems deliver.
• 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.
• It is a voluntary, non-competitive scheme.
• You will receive a payment of £60 per hectare per year for all the organic land registered with an Organic Inspection Body that you enter into the scheme. In return for these payments, you will be required to deliver 60 points worth of options per hectare of the land in the scheme.
• There is a wide range of options to choose from (e.g. hedgerow management, stone wall maintenance, low input grassland, buffer strips, and arable options), to cover all farming types.
• 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.
• Five year agreements with payments sent out every six months.
• Straightforward application procedure by completing a Farm Environmental Record.
• Monthly start dates for agreements. Our target is to provide an agreement within three months of receipt of a valid application.

How to apply

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

To help with your OELS application

• OELS Handbook 2nd edition October 2008 [2.79 MB]
• OELS handbook 1st edition February 2005 - online version
• OELS handbook 1st edition February 2005 [2.6 MB]
• Example Options map [290 kB] (also large version Key to map )
• Example Farm Environment Record [300 kB] (also large version Key to Record )
• Additional forms to download
• Management of ELS grass margins to achieve isolation requirements for grass seed crops

You can find out more about the scheme at Farm Advice Events.