Farmers in danger of information overload

The long-awaited Lough Neagh report and action plan published last Friday sets out various high level proposals to help deal with the problem of blue-green algae.

Most of the 37 actions are for DAERA to take forward, with various education and awareness campaigns proposed, as well as research initiatives and reviews.

For farmers, the action that will matter most is number 22, which is an update to the Nutrients Action Programme (NAP), with revised regulations to be in place by spring of 2025. It is the NAP that sets out the rules around fertiliser and slurry spreading to include maximum application rates, closed periods and when low emission slurry spreading equipment must be used.

Since the Lough Neagh report was published a number of environmentalists have suggested it does not go far enough. What they continually fail to recognise is that the problems of Lough Neagh have gradually built up over many decades, with the slow release of phosphorus into the water environment from both agriculture and wastewater sources. There are no quick fixes.

But if you were starting out with a blank canvas, with the aim to reduce excess P from farms getting into waterways, the first thing to do would be to establish which fields need P and which don’t. Yet that is exactly what is happening by way of our world-leading soil nutrient health scheme (SNHS). The foresight of former DAERA Minister Edwin Poots and his officials in bringing forward the scheme rarely gets a mention.

Neither does the fact that the vast majority of NI farmers have been willing participants.

The information made available to farmers via the SNHS provides the basis for real change when it comes to managing nutrients, especially P.

But that said, there is still significant work to be done around communicating SHNS results to farmers. The soil analysis received in the post is not simple to interpret and DAERA online nutrient calculators are not easy to use. There is a real danger of information overload.