FARMERS were urged to wise up on waste at a meeting organised by Worcestershire Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group as part of the enhancing biodiversity through sustainable waste management project.

The two year project was funded by £50,000 by Severn Waste Environmental Fund through Welcome to our Future and FWAG adviser Julie Dadson told the meeting at the Berkeley Arms, Spetchley, last Thursday that during the two years 60 farms across the county had plans drawn up for them by advisers.

The project was really ahead of its time," she said. "The legacy of the investment is that we have made a big difference to the environment we live in in here in Worcestershire."

They had, she said, encouraged new features such as buffer zones alongside watercourses and help protect and enhance good habitat sites for wildlife.

FWAG adviser Bruce Fowkes described some of the schemes for disposing of materials such as plastics off farms and said Gloucestershire FWAG had organised a good collection scheme for plastic to be recycled.

Worcestershire farmer Jim Bullock, a director of the Soil Management Initiative, spoke of the advantages of conservation tillage which he said had maintained crop yields while cutting machinery costs by 35 per cent, improved soil structure and increased the number of earth worms. "Planting cover crops has resulted in a big increase in the number of birds on the farm," he said.