The issue – why is it relevant to the work of The Rivers Trust?

The majority of land in the UK is used for agriculture and many farmers are riparian landowners, meaning that they own land along a waterway. Therefore, many of our rivers are affected by the activities taking place on farms e.g. fertiliser and pesticide pollution, slurry management, livestock disturbing riverbanks, soil and water run-off and water abstraction. It is important that The Rivers Trust movement works with farmers and encourages them to adopt practices that protect and restore rivers.

Farmers must play a central role in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises, as they can host the nature-based solutions that are essential to achieving our environmental targets. Recently, over 80% of farmers indicated that Defra paying for environmental outcomes will be important for their businesses in the future and The Rivers Trust is committed to facilitating this transition towards payments for ecosystem services.

Evidence shows that farming can support nature, and, in return, nature can support farming. The Rivers Trust advocates for sustainable farming practices and recognises that farming and food security are ‘underpinned by a healthy natural environment’.1 The Rivers Trust encourages farmers to take actions such as improving soil health, reducing flood risk and decreasing the use of inorganic fertilisers and pesticides, because these factors will in fact support profitable, diverse and resilient farm businesses. It’s a win-win!

What are the contentious aspects?

As set out in our State of Our Rivers report, the majority of rivers in England are failing to achieve good ecological status as a result of agricultural diffuse pollution. Herbicides and pesticides, excess nutrients and sediment/soil run off fields into rivers, killing plants and wildlife, causing algal blooms and destroying breeding sites. While farmers are long-standing custodians of the land and do often have deep connections to their environment, it is essential to acknowledge the damage done to our waterways by the agricultural sector. Farmers must reduce agricultural pollution and The Rivers Trust will help facilitate the move to river-friendly farming.

The lack of robust regulatory inspection and enforcement has exacerbated the issue of agricultural pollution, as farmers have been left ill-informed and harms have gone uncorrected. Serious cuts to Environment Agency funding over the last 10 years and a trend in government towards “cutting red tape”, have led to a significant decrease in farm inspections. Farmers are concerned that regulations are applied inconsistently, leading to distrust in regulators. Recent reports have shown widespread non-compliance with key regulations i.e. Farming Rules for Water, demonstrating that the regulatory landscape is currently not functioning effectively.

Changes in farming policy has stirred uncertainty and conflict. After Brexit, the UK Government is transitioning from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which took a “money for land” approach, to a new Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMs), which takes a “public money for public goods” approach. Briefly, ELMs will pay farmers in England to provide environmental benefits through actions such as hedgerow planting, organic farming, and wetland creation. The shift towards environmental outcomes has raised concerns that this will take land out of farming and increase food insecurity. Other stakeholders, including farmers, retailers, cross-party politicians, and environmental organisations, have criticised the uncertainty around how the new scheme is being rolled out, the amount of public money available, and the environmental results the scheme will actually deliver. Farmers are struggling to plan for the future without clear sight of the full scheme.

What is our position?

The Rivers Trust acknowledges the vital role farmers play in meeting our ambition of wild, healthy, natural rivers. We recognise that farming is a way of life for many, which helps shape our communities, heritage and landscape. We believe it is possible to balance food production, farming livelihoods and a healthy environment, and call for urgent action to reduce agricultural pollution.

The Rivers Trust is proud of, and will continue to nurture, our reputation as trusted advisors to the agricultural community. Our strong relationship with farmers enables us to promote and facilitate the adoption of better practices to reduce the negative impacts of agriculture on our rivers and wider environment. We will continue to bring innovative tools and approaches to the table so that farmers can make the most of public and private funding and adopt nature-friendly practices.

The Rivers Trust supports ELMs and its “public money for public goods” approach, as it is more equitable and future-proofed than the CAP system. Although there are fears that ELMs could increase food insecurity, in fact, by adopting these schemes, farms should be more productive, climate-resilient, and profitable. Additionally, The Rivers Trust believes ELMs is the right way forward as farmers must be involved in nature restoration. Managing a majority of the land, farmers can deliver environmental benefits at scale, and so we are committed to providing farmers with the support they need to adopt these schemes. At the same time, The Rivers Trust is pressing Government to deliver comprehensive guidance about ELMs, so farmers can plan with confidence, and to clarify whether the environmental outcomes delivered will actually add up to the environmental improvement needed.

The Rivers Trust joins farmers, landowners and environmental organisations in calling for more consistent regulation. Inefficiencies in previous rules, dwindling inspections and advisors, and lack of regulator funding have contributed to the decline of river health in the UK. The Rivers Trust delivers information packs and on-farm advice to help farmers understand and comply with regulations, but the Government needs to fully resource regulators so that they can better support farmers.

What are we doing about this issue?

The Rivers Trust movement employs over 100 Farm Advisors across the UK and Ireland who offer high-quality, confidential advice on topics such as; protecting and restoring soils and watercourses, reducing GhG emissions and accessing funding opportunities. When our farm advice is combined with our work through the Catchment Based Approach (CaBA), The Rivers Trust engages with over 12,000 farmers. In partnership with Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF), we have developed the Pinpoint training programme and factsheets. These resources support the Rivers Trust movement and others to provide effective, consistent advice to farmers about reducing agricultural pollution.

Along with our direct work on farms, The Rivers Trust movement engages with the wider food supply chain to drive environmental ambition on a larger scale. We are open to working with processors and retailers that are integrating higher environmental standards and best practices, above and beyond regulatory requirements, within their supply chain, which we expect will bring about required water quality and wider environmental protection and improvement. This allows us to ensure that such standards are ambitious, evidence-based, and applied consistently. In a similar vein, The Rivers Trust movement works with the wider food and drink sector to implement sustainable water management, for example through work with corporates signed up to the Courtauld Commitment 2030.

In England, The Rivers Trust has pushed for a strong ELMs and has engaged with Defra during development through Test and Trials and consultations. We have consistently advocated for a scheme that ensures farmers receive adequate funding and support and delivers the significant environmental improvement we need. Following the release of ELMs, The Rivers Trust has joined an array of stakeholders calling for more clarity about the scheme and calling for an increase in its ambition and strategic delivery; ELMs needs to ‘support farmers to work with nature, reduce their input costs, and adapt to a changing climate’.

Furthermore, The Rivers Trust is urging the UK Government to make the regulatory landscape more comprehensive, consistent, and rigorous, by increasing funding for the Environment Agency so that they can employ more farm advisors, carry out more farm inspections and follow through with consistent enforcement. The Rivers Trust is also pressing the government to develop a governance framework that enables implementation of nature recovery at catchment-scale across the UK. This could unlock long-term funding to support farmers and help us meet our nature-related outcomes.

This statement was authored by Vincent Riozzi of The Rivers Trust and informed by steering group discussions with the Agricultural Advisors Community of Practice, involving members from across The Rivers Trust movement.