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
Resilient Waters, Resilient Farms
Through the Innovate UK ADOPT grant, we are taking steps to address growing water challenges across the Aqualate Mere catchment, where farms face too much water in winter and too little in summer.
The project will provide deeper insight into these pressures and identify solutions for long-term resilience, with a focus on protecting businesses, improving productivity and building a catchment-wide evidence base to support future investment.
Land management plans to support biodiversity
As part of Natural England's Farmer-led Test and Trials, we came together to design land management plans with a focus on connectivity - exploring how different scenarios could combine to improve biodiversity, water quality, and soil health across the catchment. The project continued through a further two phases: examining how ELMs could enable corporate finance to support nature-positive farm projects, and assessing carbon sequestration potential at a landscape scale.
Catchment Walkover
To pinpoint the most effective sites for improving water quality and reducing soil erosion, an expert team surveyed every watercourse in the catchment between 2022 and 2024, producing a detailed assessment of the hydrological system. This evidence now enables us to target the most strategic interventions as resources become available. The work was supported by Defra's Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund.
Boost for Biodiversity
With funding from Severn Trent Water's Boost for Biodiversity initiative, we were able to use the data from the Catchment Walkover to target key strategic interventions to improve water quality along the Humesford Brook, one of the major tributaries running into Aqualate Mere. This included creating reed beds, installing designated drinking points for livestock, and fencing sensitive sections of the watercourse to prevent cattle access and protect the stream's ecology.