Warning To Farmers Over Water Quality
EAST ANGLIA - Hundreds of livestock farmers in a large swathe of East Anglia could be forced to sell their pig and cattle herds to comply with strict new environmental rules to improve water quality, farmers' leaders warned last night.
23 August 2007
2 minute read
“Defra's admission that 75pc of river monitoring points are on a downward trend for the last five years is interesting. And if we're achieving the objective, why do we need to go further?"
NFU's water adviser, Michael Payne
NFU president Peter Kendall warned that draconian measures could cost the industry £48m a year without achieving major improvements in water quality. “I am concerned that for some this may be the final straw,” he added.
And William Brigham, regional chairman of the NFU's milk board, added that a proposal to force milk producers to spend up to £50,000 to store manure for almost six months would hit the east of England hard.
Environment secretary Hilary Benn wants 70pc of England to be designated a nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ) from April 2008.
If implemented, Mr Benn's move would extend strict controls on land use to cover large parts of fenland between King's Lynn and Peterborough, north Norfolk and Broadland.
Defra has announced a 12-week consultation period on proposals to extend the NVZ area from the current 55pc of England, and a revised code of good agricultural practice and also new rules on diffuse pollution.
Mr Benn's department, which is under acute pressure from Brussels to introduce stricter laws, claims that farming is responsible for 60pc of diffuse nitrate, up to 75pc of sediment and between 25pc and 50pc of bacterial pollution entering river systems.
The NFU's water adviser, Michael Payne, who lives in west Norfolk, has challenged Defra's conclusions on the basis of sound science because long-term trends are showing a decline. “Defra's admission that 75pc of river monitoring points are on a downward trend for the last five years is interesting. And if we're achieving the objective, why do we need to go further?
