The government has launched an ambitious new strategy to
clean up our air - which includes a commitment to support
farmers’ efforts to tackle air pollution.
Agriculture is responsible for 88% of UK emissions of
ammonia gas which can travel long distances, be damaging to
the environment, and combine with other pollutants to form
fine Particulate Matter (PM) pollution, which are harmful
to human health.
The measures set out in the Clean Air
Strategy will help cut the costs of air pollution
to society by £1.7 billion every year by 2020, rising to
£5.3 billion every year from 2030.
Farming Minister, said:
Ammonia emissions can have a significant impact on the
environment and on our health, and as custodians of the
land, farmers have an important role to play in reducing
them.
Our future agriculture policy will involve financial
rewards and incentives to help farmers reduce their
ammonia emissions.
Under the new strategy the government will provide farmers
with support to invest in infrastructure and equipment to
reduce emissions and will work with industry to encourage
low emission, holistic farming techniques.
Funding has been available through the Countryside
Productivity Scheme to help farmers purchase
manure management equipment including low-emission
spreaders and the scheme is due to run again in 2019.
Funding is also available through the Countryside
Stewardship Scheme for slurry tank and lagoon covers for
farmers in priority water catchments.
In September 2018 the government launched a new £3 million
programme through the Catchment Sensitive
Farming (CSF) partnership to fund a team of
specialists who work with farmers and landowners in
priority areas to provide training events, tailored advice,
individual farm visits and support with grant applications.
Our Agriculture Bill already sets out how future financial
support for the farming sector will be focussed on
delivering improvements to the environment. We propose that
a future environmental land management system should fund
targeted action to protect habitats impacted by
ammonia. Natural
England are already examining options to improve
the effectiveness of schemes for mitigating ammonia
emissions in protecting these habitats.
Marian Spain, Natural England Interim Chief Executive said:
Natural England has a team of experts poised to support
farmers to take action which will help improve our
environment and safeguard our precious natural habitats
from the damaging effects of nitrogen pollution.
We are committed to making sure that future agriculture
schemes mean farmers businesses can work in harmony with
the natural environment and ensure wildlife can be
enjoyed by future generations. And Natural England teams
are already, through the Catchment Sensitive Farming
programme, working on the ground providing essential
advice and guidance to farmers to tackle pollution to
water, land and the air.
With partners, Natural
England will be running a series of farm
demonstration events in February and March to show what can
be done to reduce ammonia emissions. Free training and
advice will be available to help support farmers to, for
example, make choices about investment in infrastructure
and equipment to reduce emissions.
Full details of the measures which will be introduced to
reduce emissions from farming can be found in
the summary
document and strategy
document.
