NEW research shows that more than a third (38 per cent) of farmers still find the Waste Management Regulations difficult to understand.

The research, conducted by netregs.gov.uk among NFU members, also revealed that 46 per cent feel swamped by the amount of information they receive on handling waste effectively.

The new NetRegs Agricultural Learning Tool (www.netregs.gov.uk/learning) is intended to combat this information overload by providing the farming community with a simple web-based guidance tool for waste issues.

The NetRegs tool has been pre-tested by the farming community and includes six learning modules to help the user fully understand the different aspects of managing their waste.

Survey results also reveal that 53 per cent of respondents believe that the Waste Management Regulations 2006 have helped to make their business more environmentally responsible. However, 44 per cent believe that the regulations have affected their day-to-day work negatively.

This needn't be the case according to Richard Martin, Programme Manager at NetRegs, "Farmers are currently receiving information from a wide range of sources. In fact, 83 per cent would welcome a simple tool that gave them all the farm waste information they needed."

8:00am Friday 25th April 2008

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