Robert Brotherton, Principal Officer for Agriculture
and Land Management within the Environment Agency’s Yorkshire
and North East Region Environment and Performance Team explains:
Diffuse pollution is one of the major challenges to the provision of that essential commodity for human life, a clean water supply. How can we, at the Environment Agency, work with land managers and other key partners to address this situation?
The European Water Framework Directive is one of the major
drivers for action on clean water and over the last few years the Environment
Agency has changed the way we work towards a "catchment approach" that
aims to deliver the outcomes this legislation demands and which should reduce
diffuse pollution. Now there is a real
opportunity for land managers and other stakeholders to contribute to the current
“Challenges and Choices” consultation that the EA is carrying out and that will
help deliver the necessary changes.
We know that we need to produce more food for a growing
population. A drive for “Sustainable
Intensification” will lead to expectations to raise yields, and ensure we use
resources such as fertilisers more efficiently.
But increasing yields is no longer sufficient. We also need to reduce the environmental
effects of food production. That requires economic and social changes to
recognise the multiple outputs required of land managers, farmers and other food
producers, and a redirection of research to address a more complex set of aims.
Agriculture itself relies on a sustainably managed
environment, with reliable, clean water and well managed soil, essential to
underpin food security and growth. But the impacts from agriculture on the
land, water and air environment in turn, can be significant; around a third of
known reasons for failure of the Water Framework Directive are attributed to
agriculture.
So it’s not going to be easy or straightforward. Changes to climate, increasing global
population and concerns over energy and food security will intensify and make
even greater demands on land in the future. Government agencies will have to work closely
with the people who manage land and their advisers if the future demands for
food production are to be met, while we also meet requirements for improving the
environment.
Whether you are a land
manager or other stakeholder, or you just have a view about how the Environment
Agency should be approaching these complex questions, we welcome your views.
For more information on the challenges
and choices consultation and how to have your say see
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/33252.aspx
