‘Evidence-informed’ policy: Catchment Sensitive Farming

Stage in GSE Lifecyle

Primary stage : Evaluate

Related stage(s) : Create | Implement -HMG | Define / Design

Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) is a Defra Group partnership that helps farmers to reduce agricultural pollution.  It is an exemplar of the practical implementation of evidence in policy-making. Evidence is fully integrated within CSF: it underpins reporting of progress and the review of programme design and delivery, ensuring robust reinvestment decisions and informing wider policy development.

CSF uses evidence of where environmental pressures are greatest, and where it can support delivery of measures, to ensure advice is targeted where it will deliver the greatest benefit.  Provision of Advice is optimised using evidence of the most significant pollution sources within each river catchment. Evaluation provides a ‘weight-of-evidence’ for the benefits of CSF, providing essential evidence of the programme’s benefits.

Fundamental to the successful integration of evidence within CSF have been:

• An Evidence Team that is fully integrated within Defra-Natural England-Environment Agency governance, providing a ‘strong voice’ within the programme and direct links to both delivery and supporting functions
• Sustained investment in evidence to support long-term data collection and development of analytical capabilities
• Effective communication, ensuring evidence achieves multiple benefits, from informing day-to-day decision-making to informing strategic decisions, including business cases

An image of a tractor plowing a field.

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Team

Chief Scientists Group

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Department(s)

Environment Agency

Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)

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Contact Details

Phil Smith