The fifth Nitrates Action Programme (NAP) was published by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in March 2022. The first NAP became operational in 2006. It was designed to prevent pollution of waters from agricultural sources and protect and improve water quality.

Successive programmes were introduced in 2010, 2013 and 2017, while significant changes were also introduced via an interim review carried out in 2019, which targeted derogation and intensive non-derogation farmers. The NAP is interlinked with a multitude of domestic and EU policies and is given effect by the Good Agricultural Practice Regulations, or what is also known as the Nitrates Regulations or GAP regulations. Its main components include setting;

  • Limits of farm stocking rates.
  • Legal upper ceilings on N and P application rates.
  • Minimum storage requirements for livestock manures.
  • Green cover requirements for tillage lands.
  • Set-back distances from waters.
  • It is fair to say that each new NAP has brought an increasing level of change to the manner in which farmers can operate their businesses. This Focus supplement has tried to summarise some of the main new elements of the fifth NAP.

    It is important to highlight that a concerning deterioration in Ireland’s water quality is raised in numerous places throughout the document. It is clearly outlined that further changes are on the cards for the next interim review in 2023, or for the future of the NAP beyond its current lifetime of 31 December 2025, if water quality targets are not achieved.

    Aspects identified for close scrutiny and raised as probable for further change include tighter chemical nitrogen fertiliser allowances, a review of technical tables and livestock excretion rate methodologies, and strategies for covering external stores.

    Teagasc is also being requested to undertake a survey of soiled water and slurry production on dairy farms in 2022, and this, it says, will be used to inform future technical specifications and guide the interim review in 2023.