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The Prevention of Environmental Pollution from Agricultural Activity ( PEPFAA) Dos and Don'ts Guide offers guidance for farmers to help minimise the risk of causing environmental pollution through farming activities. The Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department ( SEERAD) commissioned George Street Research to evaluate attitudes to, and the effectiveness of, the PEPFAA Guide. Specifically, the aim of the evaluation was to inform the development of the Guide by ascertaining the views of the target audience (predominantly Scottish farmers) and users on its usefulness and effectiveness.

Main findings

• The PEPFAA Dos and Don'ts Guide is the second most well known, used, frequently referred to, and preferred source of environmental information for farmers ( SEERAD's Cross Compliance Notes is the most well known, used, preferred and referred to). Farmers prefer the Guide in particular because it is easy to use, well laid out and is relevant to farmers;
• Farmers who do not use the Guide, indicated that they do not do so predominantly because they feel they know the legislation already, or do not have time to access this type of information;
• Relatively high proportions of small farms do not believe that the Guide is relevant to their agricultural activity;
• Formal documentation appears to play a secondary role to personal contact (including contact with SEERAD, SAC and SEPA staff, Union meetings and informal contact with other farmers and agricultural staff), advice, networking and the trade and local press in the dissemination of knowledge on environmental legislation;
• Usage of the Guide and its separate sections is strongly linked to the type of agricultural activity of farmers - with the sections relevant to particular farming types referred to more frequently. All sections were perceived to be useful by farmers, with average assessments ranging from 6.50 to 7.50 out of 10;
• A number of respondents felt that some of the content of the Guide was common sense and, at times, the language patronising and overly simple for experienced farmers - however others also commented that it was nice to have an easily readable document;
• Different farmers have different requirements from literature and guidance documents. As a result it is important that there is a range of sources of information available for farmers to refer to if required. Some farmers will always prefer in-depth, detailed reference sources, whereas many others will require a quick easy-to-read document (such as the Guide).

Introduction

The Scottish Agricultural Pollution Group ( SAPG) comprises representatives from the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department ( SEERAD), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency ( SEPA), the Scottish Agricultural College ( SAC) and the National Farmers Union Scotland ( NFUS). The SAPG is responsible for drawing up the Prevention of Environmental Pollution from Agricultural Activity Dos and Don'ts Guide (known as the PEPFAA Dos and Don'ts Guide). This was developed as a quick reference source, offering practical guidance to Scottish farmers to help minimise the risk of causing environmental pollution through farming activities.

Aims and objectives

SEERAD commissioned George Street Research to evaluate attitudes to, and the effectiveness of, the PEPFAA Dos and Don'ts Guide. Specifically, the aim of the evaluation was to inform decisions on the future development of the Guide by ascertaining the views of the target audience (predominantly Scottish farmers) on its usefulness, effectiveness and impact on farming practices.

Methodology

The Guide was evaluated using a multi-method approach. The first stage comprised a quantitative telephone survey of 1008 farmers from across Scotland and from a range of agricultural activities to establish: awareness and use of the Guide, other sources and different organisations providing environmental information; reasons for using (and not using) different sources; and (for those that had used the Guide) impacts of the Guide on environmental practice and detailed perceptions on elements of the Guide.

The second stage comprised a series of qualitative research activities. These included a series of 4 focus groups held with farmers to explore, in depth, user perceptions of the Guide and its impact on practice. In addition 7 telephone in-depth interviews were held with agricultural contractors to explore their impressions of the Guide and to contrast these with those of the farmers.

The PEPFAA Guide as a source of environmental information

Key organisations identified as providing environmental information to farmers are SEERAD, SEPA, SAC, NFUS and the trade and local press - agricultural contractors also rely on their contractor associations as key information sources.

Formal documentation appears to play a secondary role to personal contact (including SEERAD, SAC and SEPA staff, Union meetings and informal contact with other farmers and agricultural staff), advice, networking and the trade and local press in the dissemination of knowledge on environmental legislation.

Of the key documents on environmental legislation, SEERAD's Cross Compliance Notes are the most well known, used, frequently referred to, and preferred source for farmers. This is likely to relate to the key role this documentation plays in disseminating information to ensure farmers receive payments and subsidies. However, the PEPFAA Dos and Don'ts Guide is the second most well known, used, frequently referred to, and preferred source for farmers. This document is preferred in particular because it is perceived as easy to use, well laid out and relevant to farmers. This meets the key aims of the Guide.

Farmers that were not users of the Guide gave a range of reasons for not doing so. The most popular reasons were that they felt they knew the legislation already, or did not have time to access this type of information. Interestingly, relatively high proportions of small farms do not believe that the Guide is relevant to their agricultural activity, although the reason behind this could not be explored in detail in this research.

Impressions of the PEPFAA Dos and Don'ts Guide

Usage of the Guide and its separate sections are strongly linked to the type of agricultural activity of farmers - with the sections relevant to particular farming types referred to more frequently. All sections were perceived to be useful by farmers, with average assessments ranging from 6.50 to 7.50 out of 10.

The colour coding in the Guide was positively received. However the qualitative research suggested that understanding of the code by users could be improved. There were also a small number of comments suggesting that the colour coding could be problematic for colour-blind users. Based on agreeing or disagreeing with a set of statements, the Guide was viewed by farmers as informative, concise, easy to use and understand - fulfilling the aims behind the Guide.

Respondents attributed a wide range of environmental changes to the Guide. However, the findings from the focus groups suggest that, due to the secondary role that documentation appears to play to other sources of information (contacts, direct advice etc.) there may be limitations in attributing all these changes to the Guide itself.

A number of respondents felt that some of the language of the Guide was common sense and the content, at times, patronising and overly simple for experienced farmers - however others commented that it was nice to have information presented in an easy, straightforward and readable document.

Conclusions

The research identified that the Guide has clearly met its aim of being an easy-to-read reference document that is now used by farmers as one of their key reference documents for environmental information. It is second only to the Cross Compliance Notes for Guidance in terms of knowledge, use, frequency of use, and preference with the farmers interviewed as part of this research. It appears unlikely that it will ever be perceived to be as important, or used as frequently, as SEERAD's Cross Compliance Notes, due to the requirement for farmers to meet 'Cross Compliance' legislation to receive payments and subsidies. However, as a general, easy-to-use guide to environmental good practice it appears to be a success.

The findings suggest that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to produce a document in terms of depth, breadth, conciseness, language and presentation that will please all farmers all of the time. Some farmers preferred in-depth, detailed reference sources and found the Guide too basic or at times patronising, whereas many others appreciated the quick, easy and straightforward approach of the Guide.

Hard copy was identified as the preferred route for dissemination of information to farmers, both as a preferred medium and as it acts as a reminder to recipients to review the information (when sent through the post).

An important, wider, finding from this research is that, for farmers, the role of all documentation appears to be secondary to direct contact with unions, farmer networks and representatives from organisations such as SEERAD, SAC, SEPA and agronomists etc. in keeping up-to-date with legislation.

This finding should not be seen, however, as an indication that the importance of SEERAD / SAPG in providing documents such as the Guide is minor. These documents are central in increasing and creating awareness, and in reassuring, or acting as a resource, for farmers in ensuring their practice is in line with legislation and to cross refer to when advice is received. Indeed, despite not referring to such information on a frequent basis, many farmers indicated that they would not like to have this form of information removed from circulation.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the SAPG review issues that may be the cause of (relatively) high perceptions by owners of small farms that the Guide is not relevant to them. The reasons behind this were not able to be explored in depth through this research and may merit further consideration.

Given the high reliance on networks and word of mouth for farmers to pick up on key changes to legislation, the most appropriate method for promoting the Guide is through current activities that enable farmers to come into personal contact with advisors and other trusted people. These include through local SEERAD officers, union representatives and at farmers' meetings etc.

Any updates to the Guide should be distributed by post as single sheets to be inserted into the Guide. Farmers would rather not use the internet as a source for these.

If a redesign of the Guide were to be undertaken, a number of potential improvements and recommendations that could improve the Guide in terms of presentation, design and content were identified. These are outlined as below.

• The boxes used in each section of the Guide should be revised to ensure that readers are clear when sections finish. This will be of particular importance if the loose-leaf format is to be maintained.
• A key to colour coding should be inserted at the start of each section (rather than simply at the front of the Guide) to act as a reminder to users of the meaning of the colours.
• The possibility of including a 'general' section at the front of the Guide should be investigated. This would avoid repetition of the same advice in the different sections of the Guide.
• The language, tone and content should be reviewed to ensure that recommendations maintain simple clear messages, but are less likely to be construed as basic or patronising by farmers.
• The loose-leaf paper format was popular with users and should be maintained. Farmers are unlikely to start to use the internet in significant numbers in the near future to access this type of information and almost all prefer to have hard copies of documents.
• The requirement to produce the Guide on 'waterproof' paper is unnecessary.

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The report, "Prevention of Environmental Pollution from Agricultural Activity ( PEPFAA) Dos and Don'ts Guide Evaluation", which is summarised in this research findings is a web only document and is available on the publications pages of the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent

This document (and other Research Findings and Reports) and information about social research in the Scottish Executive may be viewed on the Internet at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/socialresearch

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