Reasons for Water Quality Improvement

How can the research be used? Ka pēhea e whai take ai te rangahau?

• This research tells us that farmers and growers should continue to implement strategies to mitigate phosphorus (P) losses.
• Previous research indicates that strengthened strategies to mitigate P losses will be required as temperatures increase under climate change, because of the decreased rate and magnitude of phosphorus uptake by stream bed sediment at higher temperatures.
• This research found little evidence that decreasing P concentrations are caused by a decrease in fertiliser use or change in fertiliser form. However, this doesn’t mean these practices won’t help – more likely, it’s because these practices aren’t yet widely adopted across whole catchments. Using low-water-soluble-P fertilisers, such as reactive phosphate rock, in critical source areas remains one of more than 40 mitigations Our Land and Water research recommends to decrease nutrient losses.
• Industry guidelines can help direct where to best use on-farm mitigation strategies. Advances in farm mapping (eg MitAgator) can allow these practices to be targeted even more precisely to critical source areas of phosphorus loss, improving their cost-effectiveness.
• Where losses haven’t been caught in time or where changes have not been made through voluntary means, policy instruments can help in decreasing losses.