Environment: Farms' future found in a handful of beans

Britain's farmers have started trials on a crop which could take over tens of thousands of acres of British countryside. Oliver Tickell suggests a combination of environmental concern and hard business sense could lead to a boom in the growth of soyabeans in the UK.

A desperate shortage of protein in the wake of the BSE crisis, and the advent of new crop varieties adapted to Britain's cooler climate and shorter growing season, has prompted British farmers to grow increasing acreages of the soyabean.

Most of the world's soyabeans, a protein-packed vegetable crop, are grown under the hot skies of Brazil and the southern United States. Demand for the British beans has been increased by widespread consumer unease about genetically modified (GM) soyabeans imported from America, which refuses to separate out or label GM foodstuffs.

With soyabeans trading at about pounds 200 a tonne, farmers are interested in soya as a cash crop - whether for animal or human consumption.

Another attraction for farmers is that soyabeans attract an EU subsidy of about pounds 150 an acre when grown on registered arable land. Already, this year, eight trial plots have been planted and harvested in England. Indications, according to a newly formed trade body called the Soyabean Association, are distinctly promising.

A British seed merchant, Robin Appel Ltd, says the results have been "sensational". Two 15-acre plots in southern England planted with a new line of seed bred for British conditions have yielded 1,200 kilos to the acre.

Edward Wilmot, a spokesman for the company, is optimistic: "There is a huge market out there", he says.

Wil Armitage, director of the Soyabean Association, manages 970 acres of farmland in Leicestershire and reports harvesting about a tonne per acre from a 2.5 acre trial plot.

"And that's on frost-prone land 550ft or so above sea level where we can't even grow maize economically", he says.

Mr Armitage's main interest in soya is as a high-protein feed for his prize-winning herd of 140 pedigree Holstein-Fresians, in the wake of the BSE crisis. "Over the last few decades bonemeal has provided a superb and extremely cheap form of protein", he says.

"But now we've lost bonemeal because of BSE, and that's left us with a huge protein deficit. Dairy farmers all over Britain are crying out for low cost, high quality protein."

Simon Broddle, of Nickson seeds in Lincolnshire, believes that soya's high yield is the key to its future. "Field beans give us roughly 20 per cent protein, but soyabeans give twice as much or more, up to 42 per cent. There's no other crop to match it."

A spokesman for the National Farmers' Union (NFU) said that members would be watching the trials with interest: "If the market is there our members will certainly consider it. Farmers and growers are going to have to look at new products and new methods of production."

He added, however, that the NFU was not advocating any crop over another: "We believe you cannot deny the advance of science and we know some consumers are prepared to buy GM products."