On Thursday it was reported that Jersey Water had to close Handois reservoir in St Lawrence after chemicals used for growing potatoes were discovered in routine sampling of streams in the catchment area.
It is the first serious water pollution incident for two years, when high levels of farming chemicals were detected around the Island and Val de la Mare was closed for five months.
Peter Le Maistre, the JFU president, says that the unprecedented amount of rainfall this winter is to blame for the situation.
And he says that Island farmers have made every possible effort to reduce their use of chemicals on the land.
‘At the end of the day, if you get rain followed by rain followed by even more heavy rain, run-off from saturated fields will occur – it’s unavoidable,’ he said.
‘But farmers are doing everything they can and we are continuing to work with Jersey Water and the relevant authorities to try to get rid of the pesticides that are causing the problem.’
Since the last serious incident when Val de la Mare was closed, farmers have introduced voluntary controls on the use of some pesticides in reservoir catchment areas. In addition, successful trials into the precision application of fertilisers mean that the new practices are being rolled out this year across 80 per cent of potato-growing fields.
Mr Le Maistre said that Island-wide results show that, in general, water quality has continued to improve and that nitrate and pesticide levels in streams have been reduced substantially.
He added: ‘The amount of nitrates that farmers use in Jersey has dropped from the high 60s [units per year] to the low 40s.’
Meanwhile, 78 Romanian farm workers have begun to assist a number of Jersey growers in the planting of Jersey Royals and picking of daffodil crops this week, after they were brought in by the JFU to help tackle the shortfall in seasonal agricultural workers coming from Poland this year.
Mr Le Maistre said the Romanians travelled to the Island by coach, before taking the Condor ferry from St Malo to Jersey.
‘After the long journey they needed to sleep on Tuesday, and Wednesday was their first day of work,’ added Mr Le Maistre.
Sixty of the Romanians are working at Woodside Farms in Trinity and the rest have been deployed across five other farm businesses.
‘If it goes successfully then we will look at bringing more Romanians in this year because we will need more seasonal staff for lifting [the Jersey Royals] and packaging them, picking daffodils as well as digging the seed crop towards the end of the season.’
