EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 7: Water Quality Agricultural Measures to Improve Water Quality and Reduce Nutrient Loss Agriculture is the most common pressure affecting water quality and a significant response is required from this sector to reduce its impact. Agriculture covers over 67.6 per cent of the land area of Ireland and is the most common significant pressure on water bodies that are failing to meet their environmental objectives. Ireland’s Nitrates Action Programme is designed to prevent pollution of surface waters and groundwater from agricultural sources and to protect and improve water quality. Ireland’s fourth programme came into operation in 2017 and will be reviewed in 2021. The measures, which relate to livestock stocking densities, periods when land spreading of livestock manure is prohibited and setting levels for the storage of livestock manure, are given legal effect by the Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters Regulations (S.I. No. 605 of 2017, S.I. No. 65 of 2018 and S.I. No. 40 of 2020). Under these Regulations, local authorities carry out approximately 3500 farm inspections every year while the Department of Agriculture Food and Marine (DAFM) carry out approximately 1600 under an agreement with Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Among the group of farms selected for inspection by DAFM based on risk, over 21 per cent were found to have breached the regulations each year between 2016 and 2018. Of the breaches found in 2018, 56 per cent were due to the poor management of livestock manures and other organic fertilisers, 16 per cent were due to failure to minimise soiled water contamination and 12 per cent were due to structural defects in manure storage facilities. There is clearly room for improvement in the management of manures and organic fertilisers, while breaches for poor management of soiled waters can be solved by reasonably straightforward changes in the management of farmyards. When LAWPRO identifies a water quality issue related to agriculture they notify ASSAP, which in turn works with the local farming community to identify where improvements in water quality can be made. This can involve a whole- farm assessment, which focuses on the significant water quality issue identified by LAWPRO. In this way, LAWPRO and ASSAP teams facilitate a highly targeted approach in terms of delivering the right measure in the right place to improve water quality. At the end of 2019, ASSAP had undertaken 1168 farm assessments in 68 PAAs. The EPA is supporting these teams by providing the science- based evidence needed to target their efforts to get the best environmental outcomes. Information on hydrological setting and nutrient pathways has been used to identify where measures to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus losses from farmland need to be targeted (Figure 7.12). Agri-environment schemes, such as the Green Low Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS), and other initiatives, such as the dairy sustainability initiative, have the potential to reduce the loss of nutrients by increasing knowledge exchange on field-based nutrient management and the management of farmyard point sources. Finally, structural changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and its greater emphasis on environmental sustainability is likely to lead to more sustainable farming practices. Furthermore, the recently adopted European Commission Farm to Fork strategy means that Member States will need to take into account the targets set in the strategy when preparing their CAP strategic plans. These targets include a reduction in nutrient losses from agricultural land of 50 per cent, a reduction in the use of artificial fertilisers by at least 20 per cent and a reduction in the use of chemical pesticides by 50 per cent, all by 2030. Furthermore, at least 25 per cent of the EU’s agricultural land must be organically farmed by 2030. The role of agriculture in water quality and measures needed to address pressures from this sector are also covered in Chapter 13. Figure 7.12  Locations where agricultural measures are needed to target nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) losses from farmland (Source: EPA) 181