AN appeal has gone out to farmers not to plough uncultivated land to beat a February 1 deadline for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA).

As of that date, in line with an EU directive, an EIA will have to be carried out if uncultivated land is to be used for intensive agriculture.

"We do not believe there is any general wish on the part of the farming industry to pre-empt the legislation by carrying out works which could significantly harm the environment," said Farming Minister Lord Whitty.

He added: "By introducing EIA, we are not 'gold plating' the EC requirements, which must be implemented through legislation and to which a voluntary approach cannot be adopted.

"As the European Directive does not define key terms such as 'uncultivated land' we have set out in detailed guidelines how we intend the procedure to be applied, so that individual

farmers can see whether EIA is relevant to their own circumstances. The regulations include appeal provisions for cases where farmers wish to

question any decisions taken."

Detailed guidelines will be available and a leaflet will be sent to farmers later this month. These guidelines will confirm that the intention is to apply these regulations to the following types of land: Unimproved grassland, heath and moorland.

Land would be considered uncultivated if it had less than 25-30pc of ryegrass and/or white clover or other sown grass species indicative of cultivation. Where there are difficulties in determining whether the land is uncultivated using the above test, advice should be sought from DEFRA. It will take into account previous agricultural operations on the land over the last 15 years, including ploughing, reseeding and draining.

Updated: 09:07 Thursday, January 10, 2002