Helping farmers to curb pollution should be a “top priority” for cleaning up rivers, according to a government-commissioned report.
A group of nearly 40 experts has concluded that reducing agricultural pollution would bring “widespread improvements in waterways” and that the government should prioritise incentives for regenerative farming, livestock fences and keeping farming away from rivers where possible.
Despite the intense scrutiny of water companies, England’s farms are the biggest reason why rivers and lakes fail ecological tests.
“Given that 68 per cent of England is farmland, improvements in agricultural practices to minimise pollution are likely to deliver the greatest and most widespread benefit,” the report by the British Ecological Society, the world’s oldest, said.
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Manure from cattle spread on fields as fertiliser for crops can end up in rivers, with the problem acute in places such as the Wye’s catchment. “Nutrients, fertilisers, pesticides and sediment is washed in from the land,” said Dr Stephen Thackeray at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Thackeray admitted that some changes to farming would be harder to implement than others. Key steps include regular soil testing to ensure that fertiliser is applied at the time it is least likely to be washed off into rivers, and better management of slurry and manure.
However, he added that the report was not singling out farmers and pollution from water firms and that roads must be tackled too. “It’s helpful to think about this in the round, and not attribute blame in any one particular direction,” he said.
The Times’s Clean it Up campaign has been urging greater incentives for farmers to curb their impact on waterways.
Last year the government announced an extra £74 million to reduce agricultural pollution, with grants of up to £250,000 for slurry stores and other measures. Rob Booth, senior policy officer at the British Ecological Society, said that there were already various schemes to reward farmers for improving water quality. “The question is how to improve uptake,” he said.
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The report suggested prioritising regenerative agriculture practices such as cover crops, which are used to improve soil quality and reduce the need for fertilisers. Professor Penny Johnes at the University of Bristol said livestock should be banned from having direct access to watercourses, and fencing to keep livestock away from rivers “needs to be a great deal more ambitious”.
In 2020 and 2021, just 2,213 Environment Agency inspections took place on England’s 105,000 farms, with about half found to have committed breaches around water pollution rules. The inspections have since increased to about 4,000 a year.
Alan Lovell, the agency’s chairman, told last month’s National Farmers Union conference that farmers needed to “take their medicine” and cut pollution of rivers. “Some of those numbers on water quality are not good,” he said of agriculture’s impact.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs asked the British Ecological Society last November to look at how best to meet water and biodiversity targets. Thursday’s report calls for better monitoring, regulation and infrastructure at sewage treatment plants. The researchers also called for much more comprehensive monitoring of water quality.
Rachel Hallos, the NFU’s vice-president, said: “Farmers and growers really care about Britain’s rivers and want to see them thriving, which includes improvements to the quality of the water.”
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A Defra spokesman said: “We have set highly ambitious legally binding targets to reduce water pollution from agriculture and, through our farming schemes, are providing significant funding to farmers to help reduce pollution and agricultural run-off.”
The Times is demanding faster action to improve the country’s waterways. Find out more about the Clean It Up campaign.
