Rewards for farmers who protect water quality
“If we want to stay farming, we have to do this.”
Those were the words of Conor Roche as he hosted a farm walk on his land to discuss water quality in the river Shournagh. He spoke to 80 farmers at the event about Waters of LIFE which he is a programme participant of.
It comes as new figures show more than 20% of eligible Cork farmland is under the EU-funded programme to protect and restore water quality. 30% of farmland around Kilbrin and Castlemagner in the Awbeg sub-catchment of north Cork is signed up for the Waters of LIFE pilot agri-environmental programme.
In the Shournagh catchment just north of Cork city, 19% of eligible farmland is signed up to Waters of LIFE.
Conor added: “If we’re doing it wrong, we’ll fix it. We want to stay farming and the regulations aren’t working. I want to know what the water is like right now so I can do something about it.”
Waters of LIFE are inviting expressions of interest for Year 2 of the pilot until 31 at watersoflife.ie/eoi. Programme entry for Year 2 will commence in early 2026 and is funded until 2028.
The Waters of LIFE agri-environmental programme is being piloted to reward farmers for protecting and improving water quality. Farmers receive results-based payments as well as payments for general and supporting actions. Current participants have already received payments for training and knowledge transfer events.
The programme includes a new riverside habitat scorecard for farmers with river frontage. It offers payments of €2,000/ha on a 10/10 habitat score for a fenced or uncultivated strip along the river in areas of improved grassland and tillage, up to a maximum width of 20m.
Eligible farmers without river frontage are also welcome to enter the programme to receive payments for other habitats and actions.
Waters of LIFE project manager Anne Goggin said: “We’ve been pleased with entry into our programme to date. We’ve had more than a quarter of eligible farmers sign up in a number of our catchments and there are plenty in the pipeline already for year two. But it’s also about the level of interest in what we are trying to do.”
“The programme delivers market value rewards for farmers’ land use, but it’s clear that farmers just want to do their bit for nature and water quality.”
Catchment scientist Diarmuid McSweeney has been working with Cork farmers to address water quality over the last number of months.
“This type of programme is new to a lot of farmers in Cork, particularly those in Dairy,” said Diarmuid. “So there’s a bit of a journey there. But lads are seeing that the rewards are there if they want to put in the bit of work, which is the same for any farming enterprise.”
“Our goal is win-win – we want to improve water quality and put something extra in farmers’ pockets for doing their bit. The programme doesn’t succeed without them.”