Funding boost for farmers to tackle water pollution

There is media coverage in the Times and Daily Express today (2 August) on the government’s expansion of the popular Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) programme to cover every farm in England. The programme – which is a partnership between Defra, Natural England and the Environment Agency – provides free 1-2-1 advice to farmers to help them reduce water and air pollution through management of farmyard manure and soils among other things. In recent years it has reduced the number of serious water pollution incidents by almost a fifth, and helped farmers access £100m in grants to help protect the environment. The funding for the programme will now be almost doubled, with an additional £17m over the next three years. The new annual budget will be £30m, up from £16.6m in 2020 / 21.