Farmers and growers using irrigation are being encouraged by the NFU to respond to the Environment Agency's consultation on its strategic review of charges.
The NFU said it holds "significant concerns" with the Environment Agency's proposals for increased charges for regulations.
The farming union said this will impact the agricultural industry, such as intensive pig and poultry farming, the land spreading of waste and flood management activities.
While abstraction charges are not part of this strategic review of charges, the NFU said it seems likely that as part of longer term reform of the abstraction licensing system, the Environment Agency will review abstraction charges in line with the aims of the strategic review.
Defra published its Abstraction Plan in December 2017 which confirmed its intention to reform the abstraction licensing system.
The plan confirms that abstraction and impoundment licences will be brought into the Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPR) in a few years time. This will align abstraction licences with other environmental permits.
The current abstraction charges scheme is built on the principle of ‘cost recovery’ by the Environment Agency in performing its regulatory duties.
Paul Hammett, NFU water specialist said: "The ‘cost recovery’ principle must remain in place in any future review of abstraction charges. Charges should not become an income generating opportunity for government.
“Any future system for abstraction charges should be effective, efficient, fair, administratively feasible and politically acceptable. Abstraction charges must not treat water as an economic commodity."
Role water plays
The government has been urged to recognise the role that water plays in farming, being a vital ingredient in food production and essential to the economic performance of the agri-food sector.
That’s the key message in a new position statement drawn up by organisations representing the interests of farmers and growers.
The statement, published by the Water for Food Group, says water is essential to grow and process high quality food and to sustain the UK’s largest manufacturing sector.
It says increasing water demands from other sectors, and a greater risk of water scarcity caused by droughts and climate change, already threaten the farming industry’s ability to sustain and increase efficient, high quality food production at affordable prices.
Growers of high value fruit and vegetables are particularly reliant on access to secure supplies of water.
The Water for Food Group wants water for food production to be designated as an ‘essential water need’, alongside water for people and for energy, and prioritised accordingly by the Government particularly in its proposals to reform water abstraction.
