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The total area of land under agri environment schemes in NI fell by 30% last year to 46,438 ha. The drop is due to 500 NI Countryside Management Scheme (NICMS) agreements expiring at the end of 2018.
The reduction in NICMS area was partially offset by new agreements in the second tranche of the Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS). During 2019, the first two tranches of EFS had 2,935 live agreements covering 38,238ha.
A further 71 NICMS agreements covering 8,200ha were also still live last year, although these expired at the end of December.
The figures are included in an annual report by NI Environment Agency (NIEA) which was published last week. It shows that the total land area under agri-environment schemes in NI is more than 10 times lower than a decade ago.
In 2010, schemes such as NICMS, the Countryside Management Scheme and the Environmentally Sensitive Areas Scheme covered 470,000ha, equating to 45% of all farmland in NI.
While more farmers joined EFS earlier this year in the third tranche and a fourth tranche is due to begin next year, the total agri-environment area in NI is set to remain well below previous years.
EFS wider level targets environmental measures in specific areas such as hedgerow planting (NIEA figures show that 130km of hedgerows were planted under EFS wider level in 2019). Unlike its predecessors, it is not a whole farm scheme, so the farmland in NI under ‘environmental management’ is inevitably reduced.
EFS higher level is for environmentally designated land, and agreements tend to include more area-based measures. In 2019, 89% of all land under EFS agreements was part of the higher level of the scheme, with over half this area (17,559 ha) being moorland habitat, such as blanket bog.
There was a slight decrease in phosphorus levels in NI waterways during 2019, the latest figures from NIEA indicate.
Across 93 surveillance rivers in NI last year, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentrations averaged 0.063 mg/l. It is down from 0.068 mg/l in 2018, but is still above the 2015 baseline figure of 0.059mg/l.
However, there was an increase in nitrogen levels in NI waterbodies for the second year in a row.
Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) is measured in 24 marine waterbodies and averaged 35.71 µM during 2019.
This is up from 25.96 µM in 2018, and higher than the 2015 baseline of 26.45 µM.
The latest figures from NIEA also show that there was a 10% drop in confirmed water pollution incidents in 2018.
According to NIEA, of the 924 incidents that had an impact on water quality, farming accounted for 30.5% of them. Industry was responsible for 20% of incidents, 18% came from domestic sources, NI Water Ltd were responsible for 14%, 1.5% came from transport and 16% were described as “other”.
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