Catchment Sensitive Farming continues to support farmers and land managers in their preparations for the reopening of the 2026 SFI from June (for smaller farms and those without an existing ELMS agreement) and September (for everyone else) as well as the 2026 Capital Grant Offer, which reopens in July.
Over the winter, Natural Enterprise installed a new network of six weather stations and six soil sensors across the Eastern Yar catchment area on the Isle of Wight.
Receiving support from Southern Water, this network is providing farmers and land managers with highly-localised weather information – including forecasting, real-time and historical data, weather alerts and agronomic advice – to support farm-level decision-making, including spraying and drilling. Using equipment and software supplied by Sencrop, a French agri-tech company, the data is available on app and desktop formats to participating farmers and land managers – completely free-of-charge.
Soil sensors, meanwhile, are providing farmers with soil temperature and soil moisture readings to optimise irrigation, provide water stress alerts and support drilling decision-making.
The project’s overall objective is to help farmers and land managers optimise decision-making in order to improve water quality and ecological outcomes in the catchment area whilst supporting farm productivity and resilience. Farmers, for example, can use the data to help decide when to spray or when to move farm machinery, which not only can help create business efficiencies but also reduce the risks of nutrient and sediment run-off into nearby watercourses.
From Knighton in the north of catchment to Niton in the south, the app is already being used by several of the largest farms in the catchment area. And the project has been testament to the successful collaboration among farmers, land managers and agri-environmental stakeholders.
Natural Enterprise is inviting more farmers and land managers to the project’s network and to explore how to further support farmer cooperation in the catchment and beyond over the coming years. If you are interested in joining the project, please email: catchmentsensitivefarmingiow@naturalenterprise.co.uk
NB This article is written independently of Wight Rural Hub editorial content.