Yorkshire Agricultural Advice Rivers Network
Helping farmers to strengthen both environmental outcomes and long-term business resilience.
Project Overview
Launched in November 2025, the Yorkshire Agricultural Advice Rivers Network (YAARN) is a partnership between the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust and Yorkshire Water, working alongside all five of Yorkshire’s Rivers Trusts.
YAARN is creating a coordinated network of trusted farm advisors, offering free, confidential, credible and practical support to help farmers strengthen both environmental outcomes and long-term business resilience.
Agriculture plays a vital role in the health of our rivers. It can have both negative and positive impacts on the quality of the water. The negative impacts are often as a result of agricultural inputs getting into the watercourses. Find out more about the impact from rural pollution here.
As part of YAARN, Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust will be working closely with farmers to reduce agricultural runoff and improve water quality across the Wharfe and Nidd catchments – in particular upstream of the bathing areas in Ilkley, Wetherby and Knaresborough.
Supporting Farmers and the Environment
We recognise the essential role farmers play in:
- Producing food
- Managing land
- Supporting nature and wider ecosystems
Healthy farm businesses depend on healthy soils, clean water and resilient land. Sustainable land management can restore habitats, improve soil structure and protect watercourses alongside supporting farm productivity. Unsustainable practices, particularly under increasingly extreme weather pressures, risk harming both the environment and farm viability.
YAARN exists to help address agricultural run-off as a shared, landscape-scale challenge, by supporting farmers with practical solutions that improve water quality and strengthen farm business sustainability.
What the project offers
Agricultural Advisor Support
Our advisors work directly with farmers across the catchments to:
- Provide free, confidential advice and support
- Develop bespoke whole-farm management plans to improve water quality and reduce both diffuse and point-source pollution
- Identify and support access to funding opportunities, including Countryside Stewardship (CS), Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and local initiatives
- Support the delivery of pollution-reducing solutions that promote good land management and resilient farm businesses, from individual farms to landscape scale
- Identify practical measures such as:
- Buffer strips
- Soil health improvements
- Fencing watercourses
- Riparian and hedge planting
- Alternative water supplies
- Where funding allows, explore wider farm support activities, including:
- Soil testing
- Nutrient analysis
- Nutrient management plans
- Carbon audits
- Support opportunities for natural flood management
Root Returns Farmers Group and Events
We have established a new farmer cluster group to encourage collaboration, share best practice and provide a forum for open discussion within the farming community. This will include practical and engaging workshops focused on:
- Soil health
- Water management
- Regenerative farming techniques
- Reducing agricultural run-off entering watercourses
Yorkshire Agriculture Community of Practice
Working alongside neighbouring Yorkshire Rivers Trusts, YAARN is strengthening agricultural advice across the region.
In collaboration with the Calder & Colne Rivers Trust, we will establish a Yorkshire Agriculture Advice Community of Practice and deliver events across Yorkshire catchments. Events will be focused on sharing learning, training and best practice to improve the quality and consistency of advice provided to local farming communities.
