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Water Quality（https://teagasc.ie/environment/）
Better Farming for Water
Better Farming for Water
8-Actions for Change
The ‘ Better Farming for Water ‘ campaign is a national campaign aiming to support and accelerate the adoption of actions on all farms to improve all water bodies, where agriculture is a significant pressure, to Good or High ecological status.
Catchment Action Plans
The campaign will initially concentrate on the following eight river catchments: Bandon-Ilen, Barrow, Blackwater, Boyne, Lee, Nore, Slaney and Suir. Each of the initial eight river catchments will have a bespoke plan prepared to provide a pathway to deliver water quality improvements.
Lee & Bandon-Ilen Catchments Action Plan（https://teagasc.ie/wp-content/uploads/uploads/media/website/publications/2026/Better-Farming-for-Water-%E2%80%93-Lee-Cork-Harbour-Youghal-Bay-Bandon-Ilen-Catchment-Action-Plan.pdf）
Blackwater Catchment Action Plan（https://teagasc.ie/wp-content/uploads/uploads/media/website/publications/2026/Better-Farming-for-Water-Campaign-Blackwater-Catchment-Plan.pdf）
Slaney Catchment Action Plan（https://teagasc.ie/wp-content/uploads/uploads/media/website/publications/2026/Teagasc-Better-Farming-for-Water-Slaney-Catchment-Area-Plan.pdf）
Barrow Catchment Action Plan（https://teagasc.ie/wp-content/uploads/uploads/media/website/publications/2026/Teagasc-Better-Farming-for-Water-Barrow-Catchment-Area-Plan.pdf）
Suir Catchment Action Plan（https://teagasc.ie/wp-content/uploads/uploads/media/website/publications/2026/Better-Farming-for-Water-Suir-Catchment-Action-Plan.pdf）
Nore Catchment Action Plan（https://teagasc.ie/wp-content/uploads/uploads/media/website/publications/2026/Teagasc-Better-Farming-for-Water-Nore-Catchment-Action-Plan.pdf）
Boyne Catchment Action Plan（https://teagasc.ie/wp-content/uploads/uploads/media/website/publications/2026/Better-Farming-for-Water-Boyne-Catchment-Action-Plan.pdf）
Context
In 2024, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D., requested Teagasc to lead a multi-actor water quality advisory campaign to deliver clear, simple and positive messaging to enhance farmers’, as well as the broader agri-food industry’s understanding of the agriculture pressures on water quality and the need for improvement. As a result of this request, Teagasc has developed the document ‘ Better Farming for Water ’ to guide the campaign, which can be found here (PDF).（https://teagasc.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Better-Farming-for-Water-8-Actions-for-Change.pdf）
Agriculture in Ireland has a significant role to play in helping the country to achieve good water quality targets as set by the Water Framework Directive. However, farmers require technical support to increase their understanding of the impacts of farming on water quality and the actions to minimise the losses of nutrients, sediment and pesticides to water bodies. The ‘Better Farming for Water’ campaign will build on existing water quality programmes such as ACP, ACRES, ASSAP, Farming for Water EIP, Waters of LIFE, Blue Dot Catchments, Slaney project (and others) to improve water quality. The multi-actor (farmers, advisors/researchers, agri-food industry, community, government) approach to support farmers will ensure that challenges and solutions to address local water quality are delivered at farm, catchment and regional scale.