WaterMARKE project report identifies drivers and barriers for farmers to protect water quality

Irish Examiner

07-05-2025

Know-how and farmer norms are among the most important drivers of behaviour change in addressing Ireland's water quality challenges, according to the latest WaterMARKE project report.
The WaterMARKE project was funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture (DAFM) and involved economic, psychology, and scientific researchers from Teagasc and the University of Galway.
Researchers in the project have investigated how the use of research and knowledge exchange can achieve greater uptake of farm-level water quality mitigation measures to secure an improvement in water quality that the Water Framework Directive requires.
Agricultural activities can impact water quality when nutrients, sediments, and pesticides enter waterways. Nutrients like nitrogen can leach through light soils into groundwater, while phosphorus and sediment can be lost through overland flow on heavy soils.
For mitigation, mechanisms of nutrient and sediment loss into water are complex and site-specific, making them difficult to prevent.
Noel Meehan, Head of Teagasc Water Quality Knowledge Transfer Department, said: 'WaterMARKE identified behavioural drivers and barriers for farmers in adopting water quality protection actions… The research shows that advisors also need training and upskilling in the provision of water quality advice, something that the Better Farming for Water Campaign is working to achieve with both Teagasc and private advisors.'
Mr Meehan added that the project's findings can be utilised to develop policies and supports for both farmers and advisors. These developments can keep behavioural drivers in mind to ensure the use of appropriate farming practices and mitigation actions that can lead to work towards positive water quality outcomes.
Overall, the WaterMARKE project concluded with nine key findings. Firstly, there is a need for more local data and understanding. Improving local environmental issues requires localised activity data and an understanding of nutrient loss pathways.
The research highlighted the growth in collaborations across all the 'actors' who can influence water quality, citing LAWPRO, local farmers and the Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme (ASSAP) tackling bathing water quality issues at Lough Ennell, Co Westmeath.
WaterMARKE also found that although farmers are generally motivated to improve water quality, they need support in terms of knowledge and resources. Key drivers of behaviour change include the role of advisors in raising awareness and the importance of localised support.
Farmers and advisors face knowledge, technical challenges, and administrative burdens that carry compliance and psychological costs. Farmers with strong behavioural drivers to adopt specific measures are those who are aware of the measures that need to be taken, believe they can undertake it, and live in areas where others have implemented the measure.
Other factors that lead to greater adoption include large farm size, previous participation in agri-environmental schemes, having a point source pollution issue, engagement with advisors, and agricultural education.
Farmers are more accepting of measures that incur less cost and have a more immediate, visible effect, such as drainage ditch remediation. The cost of implementing measures is often a negative driver. Measures with high implementation or transaction costs need to be differentially incentivised.
Spatial modelling highlights variation in place and farm-specific implementation costs, which must be considered when assessing appropriate measures for individual farms. Farms with high opportunity costs for loss of land/productivity may be less likely to engage with mitigation measures.
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