Water quality and UK agriculture: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

There are high aspirations for environmental water quality targets in the UK, but requirements for significant growth in agricultural production to meet both food security objectives and provide viable livelihoods for farmers make these hard to achieve. Significant water quality challenges are related to nutrients, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, pathogens, sediments and habitat alteration. To facilitate the challenges posed, there is a need for predictive, spatially distributed models to be developed that encompass the key aspects of agriculture and water management in order to inform future policy and organizations with an interest in land management. Additionally, there needs to be recognition from policy makers that different solutions are needed in different agri‐water systems and that it often takes many years or decades for policies to have a sustained water quality impact. Long‐term support for research infrastructure and the scientific skills base is required to enable measurement and data analysis necessary to inform decision making. Farmers need clearly articulated information on the issues and potential solutions on which to make informed management decisions regarding water. There are existing solutions to some problems and this knowledge needs to be effectively disseminated with appropriate incentives for implementation to have maximum impact. Greater collaboration between researchers, industry, and policy makers, with the necessary framework to deliver effective joint working, is urgently needed. There is also a need for a wider societal understanding of the land–water system and the various ways in which society pays (and might pay in the future) for the real value of water. WIREs Water 2017, 4:e1201. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1201 This article is categorized under: Water and Life > Stresses and Pressures on Ecosystems Science of Water > Water Quality

The role of hedgerows in soil functioning within agricultural landscapes

“…Declines in soil quality as a result of continuous cultivation, machinery and livestock overgrazing and trampling, have been associated with loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) and reduction in infiltration and soil water holding capacity (Soane and van Ouwerkerk, 1995;) that together constrain crop and pasture yields (Lal, 2015;Smith et al, 2016). Nutrient and pesticide loss to waterways or groundwater are exacerbated when soils become depleted in organic C or become structurally degraded (Soane and van Ouwerkerk, 1995;Chen and Chen, 2008;Banwart et al, 2014;Holden et al, 2017). Structural damage often follows from intensive cultivation directly, enhanced through loss of important ecosystem engineers such as earthworms and mycorrhizal fungi (Edwards and Lofty, 1977;Helgason et al, 1998;Birkas et al, 2010) that normally generate and stabilize soil pore spaces.…”

“…There is increasing emphasis on securing wider ecosystem service benefits from agricultural land, beyond provisioning services of food and fibre (Bennett et al, 2009). For example, reducing flood risk by working with natural processes, enhancing water quality and increasing C sequestration are all important functions that are sought through multifunctional Field Code Changed agricultural land management (Martin-Ortega et al, 2015;Holden et al, 2017). As such, features of the landscape that permit agricultural production but which help enhance soil function and associated ecosystem services, are highly sought after (Rey Benayas and Bullock, 2012).…”

Riparian research and legislation, are they working towards the same common goals? A UK case study

“…While they claim to be technically well informed and willing to embrace good ecological practices (e.g. application of manures outside the riparian zone or the establishment of a riparian buffer), evidence shows there is a need for clearly articulated information to better communicate costs and benefits of the measures applied and how they will be recompensed for services provided (Holden et al, 2017) . In this respect, the report by DEFRA (2004) on catchment-sensitive farming also indicated that when landowners were provided with the right and precise information (often face-to-face) their actions were much more effective, costs were reduced and as a result they become less dependent on subsidies.…”

“…The EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 and the Environment Wales Act (2016) are two recent European and regional examples of this, respectively. However, policy-makers, researchers and scientists need to work together to better understand the effectiveness and potential impact of decisions (Holden et al, 2017).…”

On-farm intervention for improving water quality: livestock exclusion fencing

“…Agricultural production is also the main user of freshwater (de Fraiture and Wichelns, 2010) and is the largest sector responsible for water pollution (Environment Agency, 2018a). The effects on water quality due to agriculture can include; release of nutrients (from soil, fertilizer, direct faecal material) and chemicals (such as pesticides) into water, biological contamination (faecal organisms) and soil erosion and sediment loss due to trampling (Holden et al, 2017).…”