Catchment sensitive farming

The England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative

The England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative (ECSFDI) is a joint initiative between the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency and Natural England.

Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) means managing land in a way that keeps emissions of pollutants to levels that are sensitive to the ecology and uses of rivers, groundwaters and other aquatic habitats, both in the immediate catchment and further downstream.

What are the key aspects of the ECSFDI?

Through advice, schemes and regulation, the CSF Programme ensures the following practices are adopted:

• managing the use of fertilisers, manures and pesticides using best practice principles
• promoting good soil structure and rain infiltration to avoid run-off and erosion through machinery management, appropriate cropping and cultivation and livestock management
• protecting watercourses from faecal contamination, sedimentation and pesticides
• reducing stocking density on land highly connected to water courses or at high risk of soil compaction and erosion/run-off
• managing stock on farms to avoid compaction and poaching of land and bankside erosion
• separating clean and dirty water on farms in order to improve the efficiency of manure storage and to reduce the risk of dirty/contaminated water entering watercourses

You can download information about CSF behaviours and practices from the Defra website (PDF, 91K) - Opens in a new window.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Water pollution from farming, and how to reduce it
• The England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative
• England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative and Capital Grants Scheme
• Catchment Sensitive Farming, cross compliance and Statutory Management Requirements
• Catchment Sensitive Farming and Nitrate Vulnerable Zones
• Catchment Sensitive Farming Advisory Tool
• Further information on Catchment Sensitive Farming

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