OEP033-01 Managing nutrient inputs to support EA21 agriculture water targets

The objectives of this work are to improve the OEP’s understanding of the importance of management, including but not limited to the composition and handling, of animal feeds and manures on farms, in contributing towards the EA21 long-term and interim agriculture water targets. Furthermore, the OEP seeks to understand the barriers and enablers to action needed to manage inputs.

In our last England Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) progress report1, we assessed the prospects of meeting the Environment Act 2021 (EA21) long-term2 and interim agriculture water targets3 to be largely off track, given current policies and measures deployed by the government.

Our assessment of the prospect of achieving the EA21 agriculture water target shows that, in the long term, this target will be difficult to achieve without substantial increases in compliance with farming regulations and further changes in how land is used and managed.

We consider a number of spatially targeted actions are important in supporting delivery and progress towards meeting the target. Namely:

High uptake of Agri-Environment Scheme measures which tackle diffuse pollution effectively.

High levels of compliance with farming regulations relevant to agricultural diffuse pollution.

Changes in how land is utilised, as illustrated through Government’s land-use consultation.

Reducing nutrient inputs into farms.

The OEP is seeking to further evaluate the feasibility and outcomes of reducing nutrient inputs into farming systems (action 4), particularly by managing animal feeds and thereby affecting associated levels of nutrients in livestock manures distributed onto farmland. Work we have commissioned previously4 assumed that dietary inputs of nutrients for pigs, poultry and cattle could be reduced by a few percent through targeted actions.

We are looking to further test the underlying assumption of our previous work, by reviewing wider evidence associated with managing animal feeds and affecting the associated levels of nutrients in livestock manure. This review would then be used to re-assess the contributions these specific measures make towards the long-term and interim agriculture water targets.