Farmers spared fertiliser controls (From Western Telegraph)

Farmers spared fertiliser controls

Pembrokeshire farmers will not face controls over levels of manure and chemical fertiliser they apply to their land.

The National Assembly has decided not to designate the county as a nitrate vulnerable zone, a scheme designed to limit the amount of nitrates which seep into groundwater and rivers.

Instead, it is targeting just 3% of Welsh agricultural land, mainly on the north-east and south-east English border.

Although Pembrokeshire farmers are concerned about the biodiversity value of water, the County Land and Business Association says its members dispute the assumptions which led to the creation of the nitrate directive.

South and West Wales CLA regional director Jonathan Andrews believes the Assembly has got it wrong. The Assemblys proposals are based on the flawed and misguided premise that the cause of all nitrate deposition in rivers and ground water above the 50 milligram level is necessarily current agricultural practices, he says.

Other possible contributors, such as increasing atmospheric nitrogen caused by burning fossil fuels, and past farming practices, have been ignored.

He welcomed the decision not to include regions like Pembrokeshire in the proposed NVZ designation but says it will be of little consolation to producers whose businesses are located inside the zones.

As well as disrupting normal farming routines, livestock farmers will be prevented from spreading manure for quite long periods so they will have to build new storage facilities at a cost of many thousands of pounds, says Mr Andrews.

Fertiliser is expensive and its application to land is also a costly exercise. No farmer in his right mind wants to apply more on his fields than can be taken up and used by the crop, only to see it washed down the drain.

He believes better training and guidance would be a more effective and cheaper way of dealing with identified cases of over-application.