Region’s farmers offered match funding to help with best practice

NINE thousand farmers in the Severn Trent region are being offered match funding of up to £30,000 to encourage environmentally friendly farming practices and protect water quality.

The move aims to reduce agricultural carbon emissions by at least 20% and is part of four programmes to enhance 62,000ha of land, including Severn Trent’s Trees for Water project which will pay for tree planting and maintenance on agricultural land over 35 years.

Liv Garfield, Severn Trent CEO, said: “We’re passionate about making a positive impact on our communities and the environment where we live and work. We’re investing £100m a year as part of our Get River Positive commitments to go even further in improving rivers so that nature can continue to thrive. One of our five Get River Positive pledges is to ‘support others to improve and care for rivers.’ Agriculture and land management are the biggest contributors to rivers not achieving good ecological status. As such, we are redoubling our efforts to help farmers have more resources and financial support to care for rivers.”

As part of its Get River Positive commitment, Severn Trent has launched the new package to encourage regenerative farming practices. “Funding for investments to improve water quality, tree planting and provision of green financing will be made available to incentivise regenerative farming practices.” Liv added.

Looking to reach as many farmers as possible across the region, Severn Trent is confident the package will be welcomed.