Farm advisors providing one to one advice in England.
Source of DWPA advice Main types of advice provision
Government departments
and agencies
Environment Agency (EA) Regulatory advice on farm practices.
Natural England (NE) Agri-environment scheme options.
Catchment Sensitive Farming Initiative (CSF) Targeted DWPA advice and capital grants.
Forestry Commission Tree planting and forestry legislation
Not for profit
environmental
organisations
The Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) Whole farm conservation
Game and Wildlife Conservancy Trust Game and wildlife conservation and shoot management
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Farmland bird conservation and habitat management
The Wildlife Trust Species and habitat management advice/grants.
The Woodland Trust Tree planting and woodland maintenance advice/grants
The Rivers Trust Catchment scale projects delivering DWPA advice/grants
Agricultural business
sector
Large agricultural consultancies Whole farm business advice
Agronomists Crop improvements e.g. through soil and pest management
Veterinarians Animal health and welfare
Feed/seed/chemical/machinery salesmen Farm practices for best use of product
Water companies Strategies vary and include CSF partnership, capital grants, voluntary agreements or reverse auctions
Auction houses Whole farm business advice for livestock farmers
Land agencies Whole farm business advice
contacted in a follow-up survey to assess whether the advice was
acted upon.
1.4. Research objectives
Given the policy emphasis on advice as a means of increasing
voluntary uptake of mitigation measures, the diversity of current
advice provision and the limited existing data, this study sought to
undertake adetailedassessment ofthe recommendationsdelivered
by different advisors and the mechanisms they employ to increase
the uptake of their advice. Underlying this focus is the normative
perspective that effective advice provision is that which results
in changes of farm practice and adoption of additional mitigation
measures. By interviewing a diverse, fully representative sample
of farm advisors across three contrasting regions in England, the
objectives were to discover:
• Which DWPA mitigation measures are being recommended?
• How do recommendations differ between sources of advice? Do
they conflict?
• Whichmechanisms (guidance on regulatory requirements,financial
incentives, signposting or voluntary approach) are being used
to influence uptake of mitigation measures?
The remainder of this paper outlines the methodology used for
interviewing advisors and presents key findings with discussions.
An overall conclusion considers the implications of the findings
for policy makers regarding the provision of DWPA advice and for
improving the advisory sector as a whole.
2. Interview methodology
2.1. Sample selection
To select advisors for interviews, the UK AKIS report (Prager and
Thomson, 2014) was first consulted, leading to a web based search
to identify whether the listed bodies deliver one-to-one advice.
Furthermore, existing knowledge and consultation with CSFOs in
various catchments helped identify suitable individuals and organisations
to interview. To provide a complete picture of the sector,
the research aimed to include advisors from as many different
organisations aspossible, as well as capturing thediversity of advice
within them, therefore interviews with more staff from particular
organisations were sought when multiple perspectives existed.
To enable generalisations to be made from the interview
findings, a comparative framework was designed. Advisors
were categorised dependent upon their geographical location
and employer: the public sector (government); not for profit