The Government has announced that funding to help English farmers tackle water and air pollution on their land will be doubled.
The money will be delivered through the Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) programme, with the aim of giving all farms in England access to advice and support by March 2023, up from 40 per cent coverage at the moment.
The CSF, a partnership between Defra, Natural England and the Environment Agency, provides free one-to-one advice to farmers to help them reduce water and air pollution through management of farmyard manure and soils, among other things.
An additional £17m is to be provided over the next three years, bringing the annual budget to £30m, up from £16.6m in 2020/21.
An NFU spokesperson said: "Farmers have made great strides over recent years in reducing key agricultural emissions and much of that progress has been made thanks to incentives such as the CSF project, which helps farmers better understand how to improve the water, soil and air quality on-farm.
"The expansion of the CSF project and extra funding will mean farmers in England can continue to get advice, training and support to make improvements on-farm which benefit the farming business and, importantly, the environment."
The cash will be used to pay for more Natural England advisers to help farmers implement practical solutions to reduce pollution, including planting new grassland buffer strips to improve drainage, establishing river side trees to reduce run off into rivers and using better slurry storage facilities to avoid accidental spillage.
Natural England teams will also help farmers apply for grants to invest in new equipment and technology, such as precision farming tools that reduce the use of fertilisers and better protect the soil.
An additional £1.2m will be allocated to the Environment Agency to hire 50 inspectors to visit farms to reduce diffuse water pollution.
