More than three-quarters of farmers have yet to sign up to a scheme promoting environmental work in the countryside.
Estate agent Strutt and Parker said 78 per cent of farmers could still benefit from new environmental payments, which were made available a year ago.
The Entry Level Stewardship Scheme was launched by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as one of the first new AgriEnvironmental Schemes under the Single Payment Scheme.
But problems with mapping have prevented many farmers from joining.
Former NFU president Tim Bennett has lambasted the Government for the way the scheme has been handled and said many farmers were keen to join.
The ELS pays farmers £30 a hectare over both farmland and woodland areas if the farmer chooses to carry out a number of environmental measures, such as hedgerow management.
But 12 months since it was launched, only 50 per cent of farmers have requested for an ELS application from the Rural Development Service.
Of the 60,000 applications requested, 13,500 agree-ments have been issued, covering 1.6 million hectares of land. This means that only 22 per cent of farmers have been able to capitalise on this opportunity, Strutt and Parker claim.
Matthew Ward, farm business consultant for Strutt & Parker said: "This is not that 78 per cent of applications have been rejected, as entry is guaranteed, rather it is the extreme difficulties farmers have had in getting accurate maps from the Rural Land Registry.
"The mapping process has been a nightmare so far. However, I would urge farm-ers and landowners to persevere with the agrienvironmental schemes, not just ELS but also the Organic Entry Level Scheme and the Higher Level Scheme, as these schemes now form such a crucial part of a farmer's potential income.
"They are the most tangible way for farmers to recover the money being taken away through modulation cuts, which are forecast to increase from ten per cent to 30 per cent over the next seven years." ..SUPL:
