26/04/22 - Money for farming, avian flu restrictions to be lifted and keeping rivers clean

Several voices in the farming industry have been calling for a delay to the transition away from the old EU subsidy system to the new Environmental Land Management Scheme, which will pay farmers in England "public money for public goods". Now, with the cost of producing food rising, those voices are growing louder…. But we hear from the environmental think tank Green Alliance, which says delaying the transition would be bad news for nature - and could even lead to a reluctance on the part of the Treasury to release funds for farming payments in future.

We're talking about water all this week: Rebecca Rooney visits a group of 25 farms in Wiltshire, where farmers have spent six years trying to improve and protect the quality of the River Ebble, which runs through their land.

And in Northern Ireland, there are hopes of analysing every field's soil quality over the next four years. The Soil Nutrient Health Scheme is being rolled out by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and will cost up to £45 million.

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Heather Simons