Nitrates

Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC)

The Nitrates Directive is aimed at preventing and reducing water pollution by nitrates from agricultural sources. The Department of the Environment and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development have joint statutory responsibility for implementation of the Directive.

Under this Directive mandatory measures were introduced throughout Northern Ireland to reduce nutrient losses to water from agriculture, through improved farming practices. These measures help to combat eutrophication, which is a major environmental threat to Northern Ireland’s waters. Eutrophication is an excess of nutrients (nitrates and phosphorus) in the water leading to algal blooms, scum, deoxigenation and loss of biodiversity.

As eutrophication is recognised as a major problem, legislation covering all farms in Northern Ireland was considered the best option for implementing the Nitrates Directive.  An action programme was agreed between the Department and stakeholders and accepted by the European Commission in October 2006.  This resulted in the Nitrates Action Programme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, coming into operation on 1 January 2007.  The Regulations may be viewed below or may be obtained from TSO.

Nitrates Action Programme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (104kb)

It was acknowledged that action on nitrates alone was insufficient to tackle eutrophication and in recognition of this the Phosphorus (Use in Agriculture) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 also came into operation on 1 January 2007.  This established limits on the amount of chemical fertiliser to be applied to crop requirement taking into account phosphorus available from soil and organic manures.  The Regulations may be viewed below or may be obtained from TSO.

Phosphorus (Use in Agriculture) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (44kb)

Under the terms of the Nitrates Directive, following the introduction of an action programme accepted by the European Commission, it is possible to apply for a derogation to operate above the maximum statutory amount of 170 kg nitrogen per hectare per year from livestock manure.  The conditions of the derogation are set by the European Commission.  On 14 December 2007, Commission Decision 2007/863/EC was issued granting derogation to Northern Ireland.  The Decision may be viewed below.

Commission Decision 2007/863/EC (1.71MB)

The Nitrates Action Programme (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 transpose the Decision into Northern Ireland legislation coming into operation on 9 June 2008. The Regulations may be viewed below or may be obtained from TSO

The Nitrates Action Programme (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 (44kb)

The Departments’ aim is to fulfil the Directive’s environmental obligations while supporting a sustainable agriculture industry - one that can compete, make money and at the same time, maintain a healthy environment.

When the Nitrates Action Programme Regulations (NI) 2006 came into operation on 1 January 2007 they contained a provision allowing the storage of poultry litter in a field heap, up to a limit of 180 days, prior to land application in the field in which it was located.  This provision ended on 31 December 2008.  The provision was included to allow time for an off-farm solution as an alternative to land spreading of poultry litter to be developed.  Progress was not made in the timescale originally envisaged and to ensure poultry farmers can continue to operate amending Regulations have been made.  These Regulations re-instate the former provision allowing the use of poultry litter field heaps to 31 December 2010 and allowing farmers to use the quantity of poultry litter, stored in temporary field heaps or middens prior to land application, to be off-set against the storage capacity requirement for a poultry enterprise.  The use of field heaps for the storage of poultry litter will be fully reviewed in the four year review of the Action Programme in 2010.  The Regulations may be viewed below or may be obtained from TSO.

The Nitrates Action Programme (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 (21kb)

Review of the Nitrates Action Programme and derogation commenced

The EC Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC) requires Member States to review their action programmes every four years.  In Northern Ireland the programme was set out in the Nitrates Action Programme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 that came into operation on 1 January 2007 and must therefore must be reviewed by 31 December 2010.  Following the introduction of the Action Programme Northern Ireland also successfully applied for derogation allowing farmers who meet certain criteria to apply up to 250kg nitrogen per hectare per year from grazing livestock manures.  The European Commission Decision granting this derogation also expires on 31 December 2010 and will need to be renewed.

In conjunction with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) it is proposed to apply for renewal of the derogation from 1 January 2011.  However, before an application to renew the derogation can be made, the European Commission needs to be satisfied that an acceptable action programme will be in place for 2011 to 2014.

The formal application process necessitates the collation of the scientific evidence necessary to support the application.  To faciliatate this a scientific working group was established in Autumn 2009 compising officials from the Department, DARD, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and the Agri-food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).  The group was tasked with reviewing the current action programme and derogation.

On 24 November 2009 a stakeholder event was hosted by AFBI at their Hillsborough facility with representatives from the agricultural industy, environmental oganisations and other Government departments in attendance.  Presentations were made by the Departments and Agencies represented on the working group detailing the intial findings of the review.  Additionally, the Ulster Farmers Union and the Environmental organisations presented their initial views on what the new action programme and derogation need to achieve.  The presentations are listed below and may be viewed by clicking on the link.

The Review process (851kb)

Water Quality (7.2mb)

Training and Support (1.01mb)

Trends in Agriculture (186kb)

Measure by measure review and compliance (393kb)

Scientific Evidence including Research & Development Projects (1.01mb)

Ulster Farmers Union (1.16mb)

Environmental organisations (890kb)

Four workshops were conducted allowing all stakeholders the opportunity to consider the presentations made and provide feedback on the current action programme.  Consideration will be given to these comments before submission of the final report on the review of the action programme to the European Commission.

It was agreed that further meetings between the Departments and stakeholders be held in 2010, with a formal consultation to be issued in Spring 2010.  This will also provide the opportunity to advise stakeholders on the outcome of meetings with the European Commission and progress being made on the new action programme and derogation for 2011 - 2014.