The IFA Smart Farming event, Sources and Solutions: the link between our soils and water quality, has launched a series of short information videos on soil fertility, soil carbon sequestration and improving water quality, with two videos showing how the Pollution Impact Potential maps on catchments.ie can help.
How farmland is managed can have significant impact on water quality. Nutrients such as slurry or chemical fertilisers behave differently on different soil types. Rain and water flows over heavy clay soils and this can wash fertilisers into nearby streams causing phosphorous pollution. In areas with predominantly sandy soils nutrients can percolate through the soils and can leach into water courses causing nitrogen pollution.
Smart Farming developed five short videos to help farmers understand the relationship between soil type, fertility, carbon sequestration and water quality. These videos give practical advice that is easy to implement on farms.
Jenny Deakin, Manager of the Catchment Science and Management Unit in the EPA provides a short tutorial on how to access and use the Pollution Impact Potential maps on catchments.ie. This is essential information to identify soil type at local level.
Links to maps and videos:
