Environment Agency helps farmers fight climate change

The Best Farming Practices is a revised practical guide offering farmers more than 250 tips to profit by protecting the environment and prevent the consequences of climate change events, such as flooding.

"As climate change takes hold, and our weather becomes increasingly volatile, farmers face the prospect of more frequent and severe flooding,” said the Environment Agency’s director of Environment Protection, Tricia Henton. “There will be less water in summer to irrigate crops, more pests surviving the winter and more heat stress in stock.”

In England alone, more than 1.3 million hectares of farmland lies in the floodplain, while soil nutrient and pesticide losses from flooding cost farmers more than £50 million a year, as well as damaging the environment.

Best Farming Practices covers 13 topic areas, including how to use water wisely and make best use of what is becoming a scarce resource in some parts of the country. Another section explores how to combat the increased risk of flooding. A third examines how you can save energy and reduce waste.

There is help on how to apply for grant aid and case studies where farmers have reaped financial and environmental benefits from a wide range of simple, inexpensive actions.

In one case study, the Best Farming Practices guide shows how Philip Chamberlain, an arable farmer on a LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) demonstration farm in Oxfordshire, who applies regular applications of sewage sludge, pig manure and composted green waste on his crops, has helped to minimise pollution, improved wildlife habitats and saved £60,000 in fertiliser costs.

According to the Environment Agency, adopting the steps in its guide could reduce a farmer’s annual variable costs by up to 30 per cent, as well as cut pesticide use by between 30-70 per cent and nitrogen use by between a 16-25 per cent.

"We’d much rather help farmers to profit from a good environment than see them penalised for bad practice which is why we have revised, expanded and republished Best Farming Practices,” said Henton.

"Whether it’s dairy, arable, horticultural or livestock production, we recognise the tough business environment that farmers are operating in but Best Farming Practices is full of down-to-earth advice which we hope will provide food for thought and inspiration for action."

Best Farming Practices is available free to farmers, growers, land managers and farm business advisers. It can be download from www.environment-agency.gov.uk/bestfarmingpractices, or ordered by telephoning 08708 506506, using reference code BFP004.