Margaret Beckett has backed the launch of a new scheme designed to encourage farmers to protect the natural environment.

The new stewardship scheme seeks to preserve notable landscapes, wildlife and historic features.

While the current budget for environmental land management stands at £150 million a year, this is now expected to double over the coming years.

Combined with changes to the common agricultural policy, the environment secretary said the new approach amounted to the biggest change in farming for a generation.

"This is a real red-letter day for English farming," she said.

"Every farmer can now be rewarded for protecting and enhancing the environment.

"With the wider CAP reforms, we are making good progress towards ensuring farming is truly sustainable."

Farmers were urged to engage with the scheme, delivering greater benefits to the environment.

"Reversing the long term decline in farmland birds, for example, requires action to improve habitats over wide areas," said the Cabinet minister.

"Farmers will also be delighted to hear that the scheme has been designed so the application process is as straightforward as possible and those that wish to can apply over the internet."

There will be three elements to the scheme, with "entry level stewardship" offering farmers £30 a hectare each year for delivering straightforward work such as maintaining hedgerows, leaving conservation strips around fields and creating beetle banks.

An option for land which is registered as fully organic will provide payments of up to £60 per hectare.

And a "higher level stewardship" will aim to boost local environmental priorities, offering land management options linked to specific environmental features.