Farmers will be asked to come up with innovative ways of preserving the environmental benefits of set-aside, DEFRA secretary of state Hilary Benn has announced.

Benn said a voluntary approach, alongside a combined mandatory and incentive-based option, would be considered as the government looks to replace set-aside - which was abolished in the EU in 2008 - in the spring.

The UK supported the removal of set-aside, which allowed farmers to take land out of production to avoid oversupply, while leading the way in Europe to ensure that the environmental benefits of set-aside, such as using uncropped land as buffer strips to prevent nitrates from fertilisers running off into ditches and streams, were retained.

Speaking at the NFU Conference in Birmingham, Benn said: "I am very proud of what British farming does for our country. Farmers care for the environment out of their respect for the land. We are working together to see how we can best retain the environmental benefits of set-aside, while settling on a better approach for farmers.

"The way in which you farm does deliver important environmental benefits, and over time these benefits will be vital to maintaining levels of production. Indeed, more than 70 per cent of the farmers we surveyed recently said there were benefits to leaving land uncropped.

"I welcome the idea of a voluntary scheme, led by the industry, if we can be sure that it will deliver. This would be real partnership and we will stand ready to help," he added.

A group of experts led by Sir Don Curry was asked last year to investigate what steps might be taken to retain the environmental benefits of set-aside. The group decided that the goals of any scheme should be to revive the numbers of farmland birds, improve biodiversity and protect natural resources.