Defra consults on improving water quality through farming practices
Defra today launched three consultations setting out proposals on how farmers might help to improve water quality by making changes to their farming practices.
The revised Code of Good Agricultural Practice offers practical guidance to farmers. It brings together the previously separate codes for air, soil and water. The Code also provides the baseline of protection for waters from nitrate and phosphate pollution.
The Nitrates Directive consultation sets out the need for extending Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs). It also looks at proposed action that farmers in NVZs need to follow to reduce nitrogen from manure and fertiliser getting into surface or groundwater.
The Diffuse Pollution from Agriculture consultation deals with other agricultural pollutants, and considers three options for how agriculture might meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. This ranges from a supportive approach to a regulatory one.
The documents have been published together because they all deal with diffuse water pollution from agriculture, and each has a role in shaping future policy in England.
The deadline for consultation responses is 13 November 2007.
Further information
Page published: 21 August 2007