Codes of Practice and other best practice guides

The Water, Air and Soil Codes are designed to provide practical guidance to help farmers and growers avoid causing pollution and to protect soil as their most valuable resource. All farm staff and contractors on the farm who handle, store, use, spread or dispose of any substances that could pollute water, air or soil should be aware of their responsibilities and know about the causes and results of pollution. They should know how and when to operate and maintain the equipment they use, and know what to do in an emergency. The Codes describe the main risks of causing pollution from different agricultural and horticultural sources. Good agricultural practice means a practice that minimises the risk of causing pollution while protecting natural resources and allowing economic agriculture to continue.

• Defra Summary: Codes of Good Agricultural Practice
  
  
• Defra Soil Code
  
  
• Defra Water Code
  
  
• Defra Air Code
  
  
• SEERAD Prevention of Environmental Pollution from Agricultural Activity
  
  
• DARDI Code of Good Agricultural Practice For the Prevention of Pollution of Air and Soil
  
  
• Managing Livestock Manures Booklets
  
  
• Safe Sludge Matrix

  The Safe Sludge Matrix provides guidance on the agreement made between Water UK representing the 14 UK Water and Sewage Operators and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) representing the major retailers. This agreement affects all applications of sewage sludge to agricultural land and came into force on 31 December 1998.

• Defra Code of Practice for Agricultural Use of Sewage Sludge

  This Code of Practice applies to the use of sewage sludge on agricultural land in the United Kingdom. The Code has been prepared to compliment the Sludge (Use in Agriculture) Regulations 1989 (SI 1989, No. 1263) covering Great Britain, and the Sludge (Use in Agriculture) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1990 (SR 1990, No. 245), which enforce the provisions of the EC Directive 86/278/EEC, on the protection of the environment, and in particular of the soil, when sewage sludge is used in agriculture.

• PAS100 compost

  A publicly available specification for compost materials has been prepared and published by the British Standards Institution (BSI PAS 100).