Farming: Codes of Good Agricultural Practice
News
21 August 2007: Consultation on the Revised Code of Good Agricultural Practice to protect water, soil and air quality
Introduction
The Water, Air and Soil Codes are designed to provide practical guidance to help farmers and growers avoid causing pollution and to protect soil as their most valuable resource.
All farm staff and contractors on the farm who handle, store, use, spread or dispose of any substances that could pollute water, air or soil should be aware of their responsibilities and know about the causes and results of pollution. They should know how and when to operate and maintain the equipment they use, and know what to do in an emergency.
The Codes describe the main risks of causing pollution from different agricultural and horticultural sources. Good agricultural practice means a practice that minimises the risk of causing pollution while protecting natural resources and allowing economic agriculture to continue.
An updated Code, consolidating and replacing the three existing Codes of Good Agricultural Practice, is currently being prepared for England. A consultation on the draft of this code was launched on 21 August 2007 in conjunction with consultations on the Nitrates Directve and diffuse sources of pollution:
Three existing Codes are still available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
Copies of the Codes, and a summary containing the key messages in the
Codes, are available free of charge from Defra
Publications, quoting the publication codes given in brackets below:
Further information is available on our Help page about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat PDF documents.
Page last modified: 21 August 2007
Page published: 1 July 2006