Research Funding Body
Scottish Government Centre for Expertise for Waters (CREW)
Author
Oliver, D and Vinten, A
Project Objectives
This workshop aimed to share knowledge and understanding of diffuse pollution issues and management opportunities in the Water of Fail catchement, Ayrshire, to (I) update the farming community in the Water of Fail catchement on findings from the recent SEPA one-to-one visits; (II) raise awareness about potential funding opportunities for implementing on-farm measures to reduce diffuse pollution impacts; and (III) share experiences of land and water management from across academic, farmer, catchement stakeholder and regulator perspectives.
Why relevant to improve implementation and uptake of water quality measures
This project provides insights into barriers of implementing diffuse source pollution features on farms. It showed that farmers need financial incentives to invest in certain features but also that some features are considered to be impractical for their local farm context.
Method
A farmer focus group was held on the 22nd of February 2012. Four presentations by key stakeholders and catchement researchers (SEPA, Ayrshire Rivers Trust, SAC and University of Stirling) were provided to stimulate discussion and debate on issues relevant to livestock farming. A brief questionnaire was also used to evaluate farmer attitudes towards particular on-farm measures (confidence in effectiveness, practicality, suitability for implementation) and sources of funding for their implementation.
Key Results
Year
2011
Contact Person
Andy Vinten (Andy.vinten@hutton.ac.uk [1])
Links:
[1] mailto:Andy.vinten@hutton.ac.uk
[2] http://www.crew.ac.uk/sites/www.crew.ac.uk/files/documents/WoF%20summary%20report_final.pdf