Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) is an English farm advice programme funded by the UK Government . It works with farmers, communities, and organisations across England to improve the quality of water, air, and sustainable water management. Since the programme’s creation it has reduced agricultural pollutant losses by 4–12% across target areas in England. CSF is led by Natural England in partnership with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency .
8-499: CSF’s main objective is to improve water and air quality, and sustainable water management in England by providing farmers and landowners with free advice, training, and grant support in the following areas: CSF works in river catchments across England, where local teams engage farmers, landowners and the wider community through local events, national shows, e-mail campaigns, phone calls, and on-site visits. Engagement within these catchments
16-773: Is often prioritised based on the environmental issues in these areas. The CSF programme also works with partners, such as local trusts, authorities, trade bodies and water companies, throughout England, to monitor and improve the condition of landscapes and water courses. Work with partners includes developing tools, media campaigns, and conservation projects that support catchment objectives. CSF advisers only provide advice and grant approval (for schemes such as Countryside Stewardship ), and do not enforce government regulation. A major source of diffuse pollution in English watercourses are from agricultural practices that cause issues such as surface run-off and nutrient pollution . The programme
24-523: The introduction of the Environmental stewardship (England) Scheme. Existing agreements continue to be honoured; the last agreements will expire in 2014. The scheme is currently administered by staff at Natural England . From 2014 to 2020 Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) was originally adopted by the European Commission on 13 February 2015. The document follows the format laid down in
32-736: The meantime, the scheme was incorporated under the umbrella of the European Community 's 'agri-environment’ programme which aims to protect the environment and the countryside through the promotion of green farming practices, which enabled grants to be part-funded through the Community. The scheme was incorporated into the England Rural Development Programme on 1 January 2000. In 2005, there were 16,636 agreement holders with 531,280 hectares under agreement. The Countryside Stewardship Scheme closed to new applications in 2004 with
40-483: The previous Environmental Stewardship scheme . Countryside Stewardship: Forestry Commission and Natural England will jointly delivery Countryside Stewardship. Natural England will broadly lead on the set up and delivery of transactional services for Countryside Stewardship for the first year of the new scheme. In its first guise introduced as a five-year pilot project by the Countryside Commission in 1991,
48-613: The programme is developing natural methodologies to reduce flood risk on agricultural land. Countryside Stewardship Scheme The Countryside Stewardship Scheme was originally an agri-environment scheme run by the United Kingdom Government set up in 1991. In its original form it expired in 2014. It was relaunched for the Rural Development Programme England (RDPE) 2014-2020 with £3.1bn of government subsidy for agriculture and forestry, replacing
56-663: The scheme aimed to improve the environmental value of farmland throughout England . The administration of the scheme was taken over by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) on 1 April 1996, and the scheme expanded to include new landscapes and features, including whole farm plans for restoring and recreating traditional walls and ditches, wildlife corridors in arable areas using uncropped margins in arable fields (with management to benefit associated wild flowers and birds), traditional buildings, and old meadows and pastures (important for maintaining and increasing biodiversity). In
64-413: Was created in 2006 to address water quality issues in only the worst affected drainage basins of England. In 2018, the additional objective of improving air quality was added to the programme due to increasing ammonia emissions from agriculture. By October 2022, the programme had expanded to cover all of England, though priority is given to catchments with more substantial environmental pressures. Currently
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