The Welsh minister for rural affairs has announced that farms with 80% or more grassland can apply up to 250kg/ha nitrogen from livestock manures during 2024.
Lesley Griffiths said the regulations were laid before the Senedd today (Wednesday, November 29).
Farms taking up this arrangement in 2024 must notify and send the supporting evidence to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and adhere to a set of strict environmental measures and additional controls.
These measures will increase the level of environmental protection afforded by the regulations and ensure environmental impacts of the Enhanced Nutrient Management approach are minimised, Griffiths said.
“Through the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, we committed to working with the farming community in the deployment of the Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021, to improve water and air quality, taking an approach targeted at those activities known to cause pollution,” Griffiths said.
“On October 5, 2022, I issued a written statement on the package of measures the Welsh government and Plaid Cymru agreed in order to progress this commitment.
“As part of this package of measures, on October 10, 2023, I published a summary of responses following the consultation on support and evidence for proposals for a time-limited licence scheme.”
Alongside this, Griffiths announced her intention to bring forward regulations before the end of November to implement an Enhanced Nutrient Management approach from January 1 to December 31, 2024.
“This relates only to the total nitrogen limit from livestock manures for the whole holding,” she said.
“All other measures contained within the regulations remain either in force or subject to the relevant transition period and are not impacted by the Enhanced Nutrient Management approach.”
Announcing the regulations today, Griffiths said she wanted to reiterate the Welsh government’s commitment to “significantly reduce pollution from agricultural activities” in partnership with the farming community to achieve lasting results.
“I continue to welcome engagement from the sector on the deployment of the regulations.”
