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FARMER UPTAKE OF NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT BEST
PRACTICE
G Goodlass
ADAS, Gleadthorpe, Meden Vale, Mansfield, Notts, NG20 9PF, UK,
E-mail: gillian.goodlass@adas.co.uk
SUMMARY
Encouraging farmers to make changes in their farming practices is a major challenge
for all involved in minimising the risk of diffuse pollution from agricultural activity.
Effecting a change involves good communication to improve understanding; oneto-one
advice illustrating the impact to the farmer’s own situation appears to be
most effective. Recent Defra campaigns have concentrated on ‘training the trainers’
with a view to maximising the dissemination of informed advice. Some best practice
measures are easy for farmers to implement, while others may involve a major capital
outlay or a complete change of management style. Incentives (either financial or
through improved market opportunities) can encourage changes where these extra
costs would otherwise be an insurmountable obstacle. However, changes in fertiliser
use in designated NVZ areas suggest that regulation and non-compliance penalties
may have the biggest impact.
INTRODUCTION
European legislation to control the quality of water has led to a wide range of
measures being introduced across Europe to minimise the risk of diffuse pollution
from agricultural activity. While we know much about best practices and mitigation
methods for decreasing diffuse pollution, the challenge is bringing about change in
farming practices. Some best practice measures are easy for farmers to implement,
while others may involve a major capital outlay or a complete change of management
style. The methods used to encourage uptake of best practice are often a combination
of the ‘carrot and stick’ approach, where the ‘carrot’ usually takes the form of
government support, and the ‘stick’ is regulation and non-compliance penalties.
Because of the need to change farming practice, there have been several recent
projects on these ‘softer’ issues and Defra has introduced a ‘Knowledge Transfer’
research programme. The aim of this paper is to review methods bringing about
change in farmer practices using recent case studies, literature review and practical
experience.
METHODOLOGIES
Communication
There are many ways to communicate best practice measures to farmers ranging
from one-to-one through to larger study groups and conferences as well as media
coverage in the press or on TV/radio (Dampney et al., 2001). These can be summarised
as follows:
• One-to-One: most organisations regard direct one-to-one advice as the most
effective method of achieving change on farms though recognise that it is
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