Emerging Insights - Driving Water Resilience in Agriculture

Water is fundamental to every phase of the agri-food system, from crop production and livestock management to food processing and consumption. The sector’s resilience is therefore intrinsically linked to the availability, quality, and effective management of water resources. However, this critical resource faces increasing unpredictability due to factors such as climate change, reducing abstraction to support nature, ageing infrastructure, diffuse pollution, and competing demands across various sectors. Recent UK climate extremes highlight this growing volatility: 2025 saw the driest spring in over a century, the hottest summer on record, and multiple heatwaves, followed by intense localised flooding when heavy rainfall hit severely depleted soil. These conditions strained crops, livestock, reservoirs and public water services, demonstrating how rapidly climate impacts are accelerating. Consequently, agriculture and water management can no longer be considered independently. Enhancing water resilience has become integral to ensuring sustainable food production and maintaining public water and wastewater services in the UK.

Against that backdrop, on Tuesday 3rd February 2026, Innovate UK Business Connect hosted a virtual event titled “Driving Water Resilience in Agriculture” to explore these challenges further. The session featured keynote presentations from Dr Andrea Monblanch (Cranfield University) and Richard Reynolds (Anglian Water), who presented emerging evidence on the strategic importance of water and stressed the necessity for greater integration between agri-food and water stakeholders. Notable case studies from Dr Vincent Walsh (Regen Future Co & Levy) and Dr Thomas Fudge (Wase) were also featured, demonstrating how regenerative ecosystem design and circular wastewater systems can transform landscape-scale water outcomes.
Breakout room discussions revealed where collaboration is already working, where barriers persist, and where targeted innovation could drive real-world impact. The Innovate UK Business Connect AgriFood and Net Zero teams summarise below the three key themes that emerged from these discussions, where the community sees the greatest opportunities for cross-sector working.

Key Themes from the Breakout Rooms

1. Managing Water Excess and Scarcity

One of the main themes raised throughout the breakout room discussions was the growing difficulty of managing both water excess and water scarcity. Participants highlighted that flooding and drought are intensifying due to increasing climate variability. Regions such as Norfolk, Suffolk and Greater Manchester were cited as examples of regions facing these dual pressures, with excess surface water, often containing contaminants, affecting farming operations and downstream ecosystems. Likewise, extended dry periods were reported to threaten crop yields and disrupt UK food and drink manufacturing operations.

Innovators identified surface water management interventions, such as redirecting road runoff and soil slitting, as practical measures to help reduce flood risk and protect water quality, presenting opportunities for cross-sector collaboration between the highways industry, water companies and farmers.

Participants also emphasised the role of the agricultural sector, not just as a major water user but crucially, as a sector central to delivering landscape-scale interventions for water management. Farmer-led measures, such as on-farm reservoirs and improved soil conditioning, were noted as essential practices for strengthening both flood mitigation and drought resilience across catchments. In addition, digital tools and AI-driven sensors were noted as key innovation opportunities to support predictive water quantity and quality management, particularly where regional partnerships enable shared data, coordinated monitoring and catchment-scale planning. The use of geospatial data to support decision-making in water management was also raised as a key innovation opportunity for identifying flood-prone areas, predicting flood risks and guiding the placement of mitigation measures across landscapes.

Innovation in action:

Regen Future Co. is pioneering an integrated hydrological design approach to innovation to help farmers in Yorkshire manage both flood risk and water shortages. Working with local farmers and Yorkshire Water, the project is redesigning the landscape as a connected water system by linking ponds, swales, dams and wetlands to hold, slow, sink and redistribute water across the site. By storing water in wet periods and retaining moisture in dry periods, the project supports the transition from traditional livestock farming to a more resilient, interconnected farming landscape that nurtures both biodiversity and food production.

Existing projects within the Water Innovation Fund portfolio such as Water Net Gain are working in partnership with South West Water, the Environment Agency, the Rivers Trust, Saputo Dairy UK and Duchy College, to determine the feasibility of a catchment-scale approach where farmers are paid to store water on their land, and explore how this could improve the resilience of their farm’s, surrounding communities and rivers.

The WATERGRID project is similarly working to develop nature-based solutions for interconnected water systems to support drought resilience across Europe through the creation of Smart Water Grids.

2. Integrated Nutrient Management

Nutrient management, especially for nitrogen and phosphorus, emerged as another core theme during the discussions, serving as both a critical challenge area and an opportunity for cross-sector collaboration. Excess phosphorus remains a persistent issue in many catchment areas, while nitrogen‑focused regulations are shaping farmer behaviour in others, creating uneven incentives across regions. Flooding compounds these challenges, carrying contaminants across landscapes, degrading soil and water quality, and rendering excess water unusable for farming. New waste streams such as poultry bedding offer real circular‑economy potential for nutrient recovery and reuse but are not yet well integrated into existing nutrient systems.

Participants emphasised the need for joined-up approaches that connect nutrient recovery from wastewater, on-farm application, and catchment. Practical measures discussed included greater emphasis on integrated strategies for nitrogen and phosphorus, supported by shared, standardised measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) frameworks to unlock co-benefits for improved soil health and water quality.

Innovations such as low-cost sensors combined with AI and nature-based solutions were also identified as key opportunities for detecting bacterial contaminants and phosphate levels to reduce water pollution and enhance water quality.

Innovation in action:

The Lake Windermere Water Woodland Code project is working to improve water quality, alleviate flooding, and provide water shading by addressing phosphorus runoff through nature-based solutions. This project builds on the Woodland Carbon Code and leverages partnerships for landscape-scale interventions. The pilot demonstrates how nature-based solutions can tackle nutrient pollution and enhance biodiversity, with ongoing monitoring and collaboration across sectors.

Equally, existing Water Innovation Fund projects such as the SuPR Loofah project (sustainable phosphate recovery), to remove and recover phosphorous from wastewater and generate a vital form of phosphorous which can be used as fertiliser. And the ‘Mainstreaming nature-based solutions’ project to remove barriers to nature-based solutions and the multiple socio-economic and environmental benefits they could deliver by tackling flooding, drought and water quality issues at landscape scale.

3. Circular Economy Opportunities

A final consistent theme emerging from the discussions was the opportunity to strengthen circular economy approaches within agriculture to support resource-efficient water systems. Participants noted that high-value, nutrient-rich organic waste, sludges and by-products from farming and wastewater treatment offer significant potential to be transformed into feedstock for fertilisers, bio-based products and other innovative materials, supporting the transition to a circular bioeconomy. By recovering and repurposing these residues, farmers and water companies can drive sustainable approaches to waste management that directly improve soil health, enhance water holding capacity and build more resilient catchment areas. However, the infrastructure and processes needed to collect, process and bring these materials at scale are still evolving.

Stronger collaboration between water companies, farmers and technology developers is also needed to unlock viable circular loops. The lack of accessible data on material flows, particularly on the volume, location and quality of by-products, is preventing both sectors from identifying viable opportunities for resource recovery and reuse. While there is already meaningful circularity happening through the application of treated sludge to land, delivering agricultural benefits and supporting nutrient recovery, growing concerns about the concentration of contaminants within these materials, such as microplastics, PFAS and other persistent pollutants were identified as challenges due to the potential for contaminants to enter the food chain or recirculate into the environment through runoff. Enhanced and innovative sludge processing technologies are emerging, creating opportunities to redesign more responsible circular‑ ‑economy cycles.

Participants agreed that integrating these new approaches, alongside shared data and joint pilots across the water and agriculture sectors, will be essential to ensure that resource recovery solutions scale in ways that are sustainable, safe‑ and trusted. Overall, circular‑economy innovation is advancing, but greater integration and more responsible sludge management pathways between the water and agriculture sectors will be essential to move from isolated projects to widespread impact.

Innovation in action:

Engineered biochar is being used to capture phosphorus and nitrogen from soil and water systems, preventing these from polluting rivers and streams. The biochar can be reapplied to land, reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers and improving soil moisture retention during dry periods. Field trials in Kent, supported by Southern Water, are testing this circular approach, with the aim of demonstrating how nutrients can be recycled to support both agriculture and the water environment.

Likewise, the Transforming Bioresources – The Benefits of Biochar project, led by Severn Trent, is exploring biochar production from wastewater by-products as an alternative to traditional biosolids management.

Forward Look

As these insights from the event have shown, strengthening water resilience in the UK agri-food system and public water and wastewater services presents a unique opportunity for cross-sector collaboration and innovation between the water and agricultural sectors. From integrated hydrological designs and nature-based solutions to circular economy approaches and digital technologies, these examples demonstrate that practical progress in driving better water outcomes within the UK agricultural sector is possible when ongoing dialogue, experimentation and a willingness to adapt and learn combine, leading to more holistic and effective solutions for sustainable water management.

To continue the conversation, we encourage you to:

• Get involved: Join the Cross-Sector Water Innovation Network to deepen dialogue with peers and connect with a community of professionals actively driving water innovation across the UK.
• Learn more: Participate in our upcoming webinars and events to learn more about the Water Innovation Cross-Sector Challenge and discover the pioneering products and technologies supporting more sustainable water outcomes across the agricultural sector and beyond.
• Contact us: Get in touch with our AgriFood and Net Zero experts to access advice, funding opportunities or find collaborative partners.
• Stay up to date: Find out more about the Water Innovation Fund, previous winners and other forthcoming competitions.