The Farmers’ Union of Wales has welcomed the announcement by Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd, Lesley Griffiths, that the implementation of the 170kg nitrogen per hectare whole farm limit will be further extended from 30 April to 31 October 2023.
Regulation 4 of the Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021, which sets an annual whole farm nitrogen limit from organic manure of 170kg per hectare, was initially delayed from 1 January 2023 to allow the Welsh Government time to consult on proposals for a licensing scheme to increase that limit.
In the FUW response, Welsh Government was urged to use this opportunity to introduce an effective licensing scheme as a permanent part of the regulations on the basis that it is designed correctly to allow for a significant number of farms to be eligible and for it to be flexible to respond to challenges in the long term.
It is therefore welcome to see that the whole farm nitrogen limit will be delayed by a further six months to allow more time for the Welsh Government to seriously consider the responses and provide sufficient time for farmers to prepare once the outcome is announced.
While the introduction of a licensing scheme would serve as a significant safety net for some, the FUW continues to draw attention to the unintended consequences this limit alone will have on the ability of Welsh farmers to maintain food production levels and the impact of the regulations in general.
The FUW sincerely hopes that this six month extension will allow the Welsh Government the opportunity to fully understand the repercussions this limit will place on farming businesses and the Welsh agricultural industry, and allow them to seize this opportunity to introduce a scheme that helps to address these and other concerns.
The need for this second extension simply demonstrates the complexity and implications of the regulations - as warned of by the FUW in the years running up to their introduction - and as such, the FUW strongly urges the Welsh Government to delay the regulations set to be introduced next year until alternative technological solutions are considered and the regulations reviewed in terms of the other significant problems associated with them.
These include major problems in the affordability of infrastructure associated with the regulations as well as associated planning authority issues and a vast increase in bureaucracy and paperwork costs.
The farming industry’s anger at the regulations has been compounded by the revelation that, in 2022, Welsh Water dumped sewage into waterways for a period equivalent to 68 years during 83,000 sewage spills where over 77,000 of these were classed as "significant".
An interactive map showing the location and numbers of 2022 sewage spills produced by Wales Online can be viewed here.