Ecological Focus Areas in Farmland and their Contribution

What do ecological focus areas in Swiss farmland contribute? Agroscope experts summarised their impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services in a literature survey.

Ecological focus areas in farmland (farmland EFAs) can contribute to the conservation and promotion of species in agricultural land whilst supporting important ecosystem services such as pollination service and pest control. In this synthesis, Agroscope experts summarise the current state of knowledge on the benefits of Swiss farmland EFA types for flora, fauna and ecosystem services and identify challenges in the management of farmland EFAs. This is done with the aim of supporting a fact-based discussion on the increased promotion of farmland EFAs.

The synthesis is based on Swiss studies of the past 30 years on the EFA types ‘wildflower strips’, ‘rotational fallows’, ‘conservation headlands’, ‘field margins’, ‘annual and perennial flower strips for beneficials’, and ‘cereals in wide rows’.

Higher species diversity, increased pollination service and fewer insect pests

In the first one to three years after sowing, the establishment of wildflower strips and arable field margins leads to an increased variety of flowering plants on the arable land studied. This in turn encourages numerous insect species that are reliant on floral resources, such as wild bees and hoverflies. Birds also benefit from farmland EFAs, particularly older, structurally diverse wildflower strips and field margins. It was also repeatedly shown that wildflower strips, arable field margins and annual flower strips for beneficials are advantageous for insects and spiders, which as beneficials help keep insect-pest populations low and promote pollination service. Perennial flower strips for beneficials are showing initial positive results regarding wild bees. There are still major research gaps here, however; for example, it is not yet clear what contribution perennial flower strips for beneficials make to reducing pests in different crops.

Keeping weed pressure low, increasing profitability

Apart from mice and snails, one of the biggest challenges with Farmland EFAs is weed pressure in crops. In practice, there are major concerns in terms of the second growth of sown plant species that could compete with follow-on crops. For this reason it is important to to develop solutions involving lower use of herbicides.

It is also important to keep the economic efficiency of farmland EFAs in focus. The latter are of benefit when they are effective in keeping down pest populations or help increase yields slightly. The decision of which crops to grow is not made solely on the basis of economic considerations, however. Farmers also value the positive reactions of visitors to flowering farmland EFAs and are themselves delighted by the biodiversity that they can observe.