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The Environment Sensitive Farming (ESF) advice contract, launched in February
2005, aims to encourage voluntary change in the behaviour and practices of land
managers prior to the introduction of the POMs and to inform the new agricultural
waste management requirements. The advice campaign is outcome focussed and
it is expected that farmers, land managers and their advisors will better understand
the impact of farming practices on the environment, identify which practices are
detrimental, which are beneficial and change their attitude and practices in order to
reduce pollution and enhance the environment.
At present there are a number of national and regional advice initiatives in addition
to specific local projects in England, the incentive for their uptake by land managers
being driven by grant schemes and legislation, e.g. Environmental Stewardship (ES)
and Cross Compliance. A key challenge to the success of the ESF campaign is
to ensure that the target audience is motivated to implement voluntary changes in
waste and diffuse pollution management. This is being achieved demonstrating how
existing legislation or schemes can be integrated with the requirements of improved
management practices, thus ensuring compliance and financial benefits whilst at the
same time managing waste and diffuse pollution. Figure 1 illustrates how the various
directives, schemes and initiatives inform the content of the ESF advice campaign.
Figure 1: The integration of directives, schemes and initiatives which inform
the Environment Sensitive Farming project
Many previous advice projects have not focussed on the success of their impact
and identified whether actual changes in attitudes, behaviours or practices have
taken place in response to the advice given. A significant component of the ESF
project independently evaluates the success of the delivery methods and the impact
delivery events have.
METHODOLOGY
ESF is a Defra-funded, Rural Development Service (RDS) managed, programme of
free advice targeted at farmers, contractors, advisors (agricultural and environmental)
and distributors. The 3-year programme commenced in December 2004 and is
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