Pioneering the green revolution
The aim of our work is to pioneer, develop, and implement ways of farming that support both the local ecology and our local economy.
We collaborate on funded projects to monitor and improve water quality, soil health, priority habitats and biodiversity, as well as sharing expertise on how to support nature in our own individual businesses.
Our work demonstrates how farming in partnership with nature can be as profitable for farmers as it is for the environment. Successful case studies of how such methods work in practice are essential to give farmers across the country the confidence to try this on their own land.
The biggest barriers to environmentally-friendly farming in the UK are financial. In a high-risk industry where margins are slim, changing how we do business may jeopardise our livelihoods. If things go wrong, we stand to lose not only our businesses but also our land and our entire way of life. Building a strong body of evidence that farming in partnership with nature creates profitable and sustainable businesses, is essential to give farmers the sense of security we need to change how we do things.
Aqualate Mere Farmers was initially formed in 2016, funded by Natural England, as part of a national initiative to bring farmers within a catchment together to improve their local ecosystems and waterways.
Since this funding expired, we have managed to secure several additional partnerships and sponsorships from a range of public bodies and private institutions, whose logos are at the foot of the page. Everything we have achieved so far is thanks to their support.
Our work has gone from strength to strength over the past decade, but without additional funding and investment, we will not be able to continue.
If you would like to sponsor or partner with us to support farming in partnership with nature, please get in touch. We welcome all inquiries.
Our Projects
Land management plans to support biodiversity – Part 1
As part of Natural England' Farmer-led Test and Trials, we came together to design land management plans for our own holdings, as well as for the whole catchment. We examined how various scenarios could combine and intersect to improve biodiversity, water quality, and soil health, and designed a mapping system to visually represent how opportunities could be connected together. Watch a video about this project here.
Land management plans to support biodiversity – Part 2
In the second phase of Natural England's Test and Trials, we identified three key focus areas to encourage farming in partnership with nature: education, finance and flexibility. Education gives farmers, funders and investors the confidence and skills to negotiate emerging natural capital markets. Patient financing is necessary to improve farming techniques, which, since farmers work on annual cycles, can often take many years. Flexibility is required to allow farmers to properly adapt as these schemes roll out. Watch a video about this project here.
Catchment Walkover
To help us to identify the key sites for improving water quality and preventing soil erosion, an expert team walked the length of all the watercourses in the catchment between 2022-24 to produce a detailed survey of the hydrological system. This data allows us to efficiently target our work at the most strategic and impactful interventions to improve water quality and soil health, as and when the necessary resources become available. This project was supported DEFRA’s Facilitation Fund.
Boost for Biodiversity
Thanks to funding from Severn Trent Water's Boost for Biodiversity initiative, we were able to use the data from the Catchment Walkover to make key strategic interventions to improve water quality along the Humesford Brook, one of the major tributaries running into Aqualate Mere. This included planting new reed beds, providing designated drinking points for livestock, and adding fencing along parts of the watercourse to stop cattle getting in and disturbing the ecosystem.