Richard has welcomed the news that the government is investing an extra £17m to support farmers to reduce water and air pollution from their land.
The Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) programme has been one of the main ways to help farmers tackle pollution from manure, fertiliser and soil running off into rivers when it rains. The programme provides free 1-2-1 advice to farmers to help them reduce water and air pollution through management of farmyard manure and soils among other things.
The funding for the programme will now be almost doubled, with an additional £17m over the next three years. The new annual budget will be £30m, up from £16.6m in 2020/21. This means it will cover 100% of England’s farmland, up from 40% of its current coverage, with every farmer able to access advice and support by March 2023 to help them access a range of solutions to reduce pollution.
Richard Fuller, MP for North East Bedfordshire, said:
Farmers have an important role to help protect the environment. The Catchment Sensitive Farming programme is one of the main ways to reduce water pollution from farmed land and I welcome this extra £17m to expand the programme in England so that all farmers have access to advice to help them reduce water pollution
The Catchment Sensitive Farming in recent years has reduced the number of serious water pollution incidents by almost a fifth, and helped farmers access £100m in grants.
The extra funding will provide more Natural England advisers to help farmers implement practical solutions to reduce pollution, including planting new grassland buffer strips to improve drainage, establishing river side trees to reduce run off into rivers and using better slurry storage facilities to avoid accidental spillage.
Natural England teams will also help farmers apply for grants to invest in new equipment and technology, such as precision farming tools that reduce the use of fertilisers and better protect the soil.
