Drones Could Spy on Bad Farming

Drones should be used to spot bad farming, a coalition of campaigners has said.

17:32 10 April 2018

A coalition of campaigners is urging the Environment Agency to do more to improve soil conservation. In their report, they suggested the use of drones to spot bad farming especially in remote fields, such as in the West Country where many farmers grow maize in steep slopes. The plants are widely spaced and soil left uncovered between them can be easily flushed away in heavy rains.

 

One of its authors, Mark Lloyd from the Angling Trust, said: "The rules on protecting soil aren't being enforced. We need a baseline of regulation to stop bad farmers doing the wrong thing and to stop good farmers looking over the fence and seeing someone else get away with it.

 

"The trouble is that the Environment Agency can only respond to major incidents. But soil run-off is diffuse pollution - it comes in hundreds of thousands of trickles, not normally one big incident."

 

Meanwhile, a spokesman said that that government is considering the ideas presented in the report to combat soil run-off. He said: "Our farmers work hard to keep our soils rich, our rivers clean and to help in the fight against environmental degradation. We are considering the proposals put forward (in the report) to improve these efforts further.