Ensuring a strong farmer uptake of the new water quality project will be a critical part in retaining Ireland’s nitrates derogation, according to a member of the Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme (ASSAP).
The €60 million Farming for Water project is the largest European Innovation Partnership (EIP) ever to be carried out in Ireland.
It will be delivered by the Local Authority Water Programme (LAWPRO), in partnership with Teagasc and Dairy Industry Ireland (DII).
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has allocated a budget of €50 million over five years, which will cover payments for up to 15,000 farmers.
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has earmarked €10 million to cover the administrative and operational costs of the EIP.
ASSAP
Since 2018, ASSAP has been working with farmers and landowners offering a free and confidential advisory service to help improve water quality.
Kieran Kenny, a Teagasc environment and technology advisor, works with farmers through the ASSAP programme in the Roscommon/Longford region.
He said that around 90% of farmers are willing to engage with the programme in that they are will to cooperate and take on board the advice given.
However, he said the level of implementation of the necessary measures has been an issue.
“To date, it was easier to ask the farmer maybe to change his management, if that’s all that was required in terms of satisfying a measure, but where you were asking them to physically spend money to put in a measure on the ground, and where it involved capital costs, that was obviously a bigger ask,” he told Agriland.
Kenny said that the Farming for Water EIP is a huge asset for ASSAP as it will support farmers with the cost of water quality measures.
“If we can be successful in holding the derogation obviously the uptake of the EIP will be one critical aspect to that. We are hoping to engage with about 15,000 farmers so if we can show over the next few years, that there has been a positive uptake with measures.
“It’ll be hard, obviously, within a couple of years, in a short time spell, to prove that the water quality has changed, but at least if the measures are there and being implemented, then that should be a positive step,” he said.
Kenny said that environmental schemes have resulted in water quality issues being resolved on a lot of farmyards in terms of slurry storage, particularly on drystock farms.
However, he said that there are bigger issues that need to be addressed on the land when it comes to nutrient loss.
Kenny is confident for the future, noting that “water quality has become fashionable again in the last couple of years”.
“Farmers do realise that there is an issue, they all acknowledge that everyone is responsible, in their own way. The bigger farmers, may have more issues to deal with and might be causing more pressure, but collectively everyone has responsibility.
“Obviously, there’s pressures from other sources as well, from public storage supplies, forestry, there’s a range of different pressures.
“We all need to be mindful that that water quality isn’t just a problem from farming, because when you start pointing the blame on farmers alone, obviously that can be a huge issue,” Kenny said.
Pesticides
Pesticide exceedances in Irish drinking water supplies fell by 50% last year when compared with 2018, according to Uisce Éireann.
Lorraine Gaston, integrated catchment manager with Uisce Éireann, told Agriland that the utility regularly tests drinking water supplies to check for compliance with pesticide regulations.
“In some instances, we’ve seen concentrations of pesticides that are above the drinking water limit. These concentrations are not actually a public health risk, but nonetheless, they’re undesirable to have in drinking water,” she said.
In response to this issue, the multi-agency National Pesticides and Drinking Water Action Group (NPDWAG) was established in 2017.
The aim of the group is to tackle the issue of pesticide exceedances in drinking water by working together to raise awareness at a national level, but also on a local level where issues occur.
In cases where there were persistent issues with pesticide exceedances in a particular area, the NPDWAG has formed local catchment focus groups.
There are currently six of local catchment focus groups in operation across the country: Longford Central; Clonroche in Co. Wexford; River Deel and River Feale catchments on the Limerick/Kerry border; Belturbet, Co. Cavan; Newport Co. Mayo and Greenmount, Co. Louth.
Gaston thanked farmers and landowners for the work they have done in reducing pesticide exceedances to date.
“It’s great to see the progress and that you know this catchment management approach can work and reduce the risk of pesticides in our drinking water,” she said.
Gaston said that there are both implementation lag times and scientific lag times where water quality measures are concerned.
“It takes a while for projects to get set up and for people to find out about them, for people to get engaged. You almost need to demonstrate it working on a couple of farm, and then other people get keen to get involved, and all that takes time to kind of build momentum and implement.
“Then it takes time for the individual measures to take effect once they have been installed and you then need some monitoring from before, during and after, to verify those as well.
“How long this takes depends on the type of contaminant you’re talking about. Some can respond quite quickly, and others will take longer,” she said.
When it comes to pesticide usage, Gaston said that the first question people should ask is if they need to use the product at all.
She said if a user determines that pesticides are needed they should follow best practice guidelines and advice from experts on the ground.
Gaston agreed that everyone, including Uisce Éireann, has a part to play in improving water quality.
She noted that Uisce Éireann has a programme of work to upgrade a number of wastewater treatment plants over the coming years.