FOLLOWING the article “North Yorkshire landowners warned over river maintenance duties” (Echo, Jan 11), I wanted to clarify the role of farmers in helping to manage the risk of flooding and emphasise the extent of the work already carried out by our members who are seeing their farm businesses increasingly impacted by major flooding events.

Agriculture is often at the mercy of extreme and changeable weather, while at the same time, it is viewed by some as the solution to many flooding problems.

Maintenance of our existing watercourses and flood risk infrastructure, whether natural or manmade, is hugely important as the entire catchment (from source to sea) needs to be working at full capacity to manage our flood risk, now and in the future.

Farmers across the North-East already play an active role in reducing flood and coastal management, through the continued maintenance of thousands of kilometres of rivers and watercourses.

This work is carried out to ensure water can flow unimpeded to reduce the flood risk as well as to benefit the environment.

Current flood risk funding prioritises towns and cities, people and property, often meaning a significant reduction in the maintenance of main rivers, watercourses, banks and rural flood defences carried out by statutory bodies.

The result is more frequent and more extensive flooding of farmland.

Without any insurance available to cover for their losses, farming businesses are being put under increased financial pressures after each flood event. At the same time, they are being asked to take more and more land out of production (with extremely limited recompense, if any) to reduce the flood risk elsewhere.

The NFU has produced a water maintenance solutions pack, which is free for our members, that makes it clear what work farmers can carry out and set out the permits required plus other important considerations.

James Copeland, NFU North-East Senior Environment and Land Use Adviser, York.