From January next year, new rules regarding the spreading of fertilisers adjacent to watercourses will affect farmers across Scotland.  Failure to meet the new cross-compliance requirements may result in penalties to farmers’ Single Payments.

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From next month, all Scottish producers subject to cross-compliance will face tighter rules regarding the spreading of fertiliser. The rules already apply to those who farm in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ), but the Scottish farmers’ union has said the new rules could present a challenge to many farmers.

NFU Scotland is working with other agencies, such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, to see that measures are undertaken to improve water quality. The new rules, which apply throughout Scotland as part of the EU Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC)  from January, state that organic fertiliser (slurries and manures) cannot be applied to any land within 10 metres of any surface water (ditch, burn, river, wetland etc) and 50 metres of a well, borehole or similar water supply.

Furthermore, inorganic nitrogen fertilisers cannot be applied to land within 2 metres of surface water or “in a location or manner that makes it likely that chemical fertiliser will directly enter any surface water.”

The rules have been introduced as a legacy of the CAP Health Check of 2008, which included a requirement for Member States to introduce GAEC measures to protect watercourses against diffuse pollution and run-off. Fertiliser run-off can cause eutrophication in water courses, causing algae to grow and other aquatic life to die off. Eurtrophication is responsible for the 22,126 square kilometre 'dead zone' in the Gulf of Mexico, where marine life has been killed off by nutrients washed down the Mississippi river from the heart of the central regions of US agribusiness. 

NFU Scotland spokesperson Jonnie Hall claimed that the new legislation would not have the same effect as the union’s own efforts. He claimed that the NFUS’ approach to tackling run-off and diffuse pollution had been “focussed at farm level through advice, awareness raising and changing practice - rather than regulation and enforcement.” 

Mr Hall went on to say, “The Union believes this approach is already beginning to bring returns in terms of water quality improvements and input efficiency. We remain convinced that the challenges of tackling diffuse pollution can not be properly addressed through the very blunt tools of cross-compliance and inspection or regulation and enforcement. 

“Any move beyond the minimum requirements the EU Commission has set out at this stage might make all the good progress to date redundant.” 

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