The Recommended Key Practices identify key practices for each of the priority agri sectors in the Wye and Usk catchments.
The Recommendations are a simple statement of those farming practices that will have the greatest beneficial impact on the rivers whilst being achievable. Our objective is to create consistency across all supply chains to focus our efforts and so that the recommendation to producers is the same across all supply chains.
The Recommended Key Practices are recommendations and should not be mandated. Instead retail and supply chain businesses should talk to their producers to identify how they can actively support their producers to implement the Recommended Key Practices over time. Where producers identify barriers to implementation, retail and supply chain businesses should investigate how they can support producers overcome them.Â
It is highly recommended that all retail and supply chain businesses operating in the Wye and Usk support the uptake of these same practices without varying them in order to provide producers with consistency across the supply chain.
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NOTE The Statutory Guidance ‘Enforcing the Farming Rules for Water’ was published by the Defra Secretary of State in June 2025, after the Recommended Key Practices for the Wye and Usk were finalised. We are consulting on the implications of this for the Recommendations although currently we do not believe there are any inconsistencies and we encourage businesses to continue increasing their uptake over time.
