Water Management & Abstraction
Water Management: Data & Integrations
What is recorded, what it connects to and who can see it.
The module maintains 8 core entities and connects to 5 external sources. Everything is exportable in open formats and every instance of sharing requires explicit consent.
Data model
What the module records, and how it connects
These are the entities the module maintains. Because they are shared across the platform rather than owned by one screen, a record created here is available everywhere it is relevant.
- Licence
- Point of abstraction
- Meter
- Reading
- Condition
- Restriction notice
- Return
- Water use record
Every entity carries a full audit trail and is exportable in open formats under the Farm Data Charter.
Working view
Water Management, at a glance
The numbers you would check before doing anything else in water management. Each one is live against your own record, and each one tells you where it came from.
Choose a view
Percentage of licensed volume used
84 %
+4 pts
target 95%
Returns submitted on time
30 days
−7 days
target under 26
Restriction days experienced
10 days
−6 days
target under 6
Water use per unit of output
95
+3.0%
Losses identified and fixed
33
+2.0%
What needs attention
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Action needed
Licence breach through late reconciliation
mitigated by continuous position tracking
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For information
Sudden restriction during a critical growth stage
mitigated by drought planning and alerting
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For information
Meter failure
mitigated by cross-checks against expected use
Integrations
What it connects to
Agrivencia integrates with authoritative sources rather than rebuilding them. Where no production interface exists, a documented user-mediated route is provided instead.
- Environment Agency abstraction data
- Devolved environment regulators
- Telemetry meters
- River flow gauging data
- Met Office rainfall data
Integration availability, licensing and cost vary by source. The integration catalogue states the position for each one honestly, including where a commercial licence is required.
By nation
The same job, four different sets of rules
Delivered by: Defra, the Rural Payments Agency, Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission.
Main scheme: Environmental Land Management, with the Sustainable Farming Incentive as the principal offer alongside Countryside Stewardship, capital grants and Landscape Recovery.
Delinked payments end after 2027. Windows have closed at short notice before, so budget-fill status is worth watching.
Delivered by: The Scottish Government and the Rural Payments and Inspections Division.
Main scheme: A four-tier framework under the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024, with base and enhanced direct payments and elective and complementary tiers following.
Whole Farm Plan components are a condition of support and phase in over several years. Miss a component and the payment is at risk.
Delivered by: The Welsh Government and Rural Payments Wales.
Main scheme: The Sustainable Farming Scheme, with Universal, Optional and Collaborative layers, replacing the legacy area payment which phases out by 2029.
The Universal layer requires twelve actions, at least ten per cent habitat and a farm carbon baseline. Welsh language provision is a legal expectation, not an optional extra.
Delivered by: DAERA.
Main scheme: The Sustainable Agriculture Programme, with the Farm Sustainability Payment as the area-based safety net alongside beef, suckler, sheep, protein crop and horticulture schemes.
Conditionality now includes soil nutrient health and bovine genetics participation, and progressive capping applies above sixty thousand pounds.
Detail
How the data is held
Water is moving from an assumed input to a constrained and licensed one. This module holds every abstraction licence and its conditions, tracks actual abstraction against annual and daily limits, monitors restriction notices and hands-off flow conditions, and produces the returns each regulator requires — before a breach becomes an enforcement matter.
Abstraction licensing is administered separately in each nation, with licence conditions covering annual and daily volumes, seasonal restrictions and hands-off flow conditions that can suspend abstraction with little notice. Farms increasingly hold multiple licences across several points of abstraction, and reconciling meter readings against licence conditions is routinely done retrospectively rather than continuously.
Everything Water Management records is written into the same platform data spine as every other module, which is why a single entry can satisfy an operational need, a scheme evidence requirement, an assurance clause and a carbon activity line at once. That is the whole design premise: the work is already being done, and it is the recording of it that is duplicated.
Obligation calendar
What water management asks of you, and when
Windows, deadlines and recurring obligations for England. Set a different nation and the calendar reconfigures; farm across a border and it shows both, reconciled.
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February 1 entry
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3 February: Animal Health and Welfare Pathway
Rolling application.
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April 1 entry
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20 April: Adding Value Grant
Round-based.
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May 1 entry
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20 May: Capture readings continuously
A recurring step in water management.
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June 2 entries
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5 June: Farming Transformation Fund
Round-based by theme.
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15 June: Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026
Two windows in 2026: window one from 30 June, window two from September.
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July 2 entries
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14 July: Slurry Infrastructure Grant
Round-based.
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17 July: Water Management Grant
Round-based.
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September 1 entry
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12 September: Map sources and metering points
A recurring step in water management.
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October 1 entry
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5 October: Farming Equipment and Technology Fund
Round-based, usually open for a defined application period.
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November 4 entries
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12 November: Improving Farm Productivity Grant
Round-based.
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27 November: Environmental Land Management Capital Grants
Round-based, with rapid allocation once open.
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27 November: Track position against limits
A recurring step in water management.
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28 November: Register every licence and its conditions
A recurring step in water management.
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December 1 entry
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26 December: Countryside Stewardship
Rolling and round-based depending on the tier and option group.
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How we handle evidence
Where these figures come from
Agrivencia grades every figure it publishes. Primary legislation, official statistics and audit reports are treated as authoritative. Levy body and professional body data is treated as reliable. Commercial trackers and trade press are treated as indicative and labelled as such. Where sources conflict, the conflict is shown rather than resolved silently.
- Authoritative Legislation, statutory instruments, official scheme rules, national audit and public accounts reporting, departmental annual reports and accredited official statistics.
- Reliable Parliamentary committee evidence, peer-reviewed research, independent economic institutes and levy body analysis.
- Supporting Professional bodies, land agents, certification schemes and industry associations.
- Indicative Commercial market trackers and trade press, used for corroboration only and always labelled.
Payment rates, caps and windows in UK farm support change frequently and sometimes without notice. Nothing on this platform is a substitute for the current published scheme rules or for professional advice.
Questions answered
What people ask about Water Management
Does this replace the software I already use?
Not necessarily. Agrivencia integrates with authoritative sources and mainstream packages rather than insisting on replacing them. Where an incumbent does one job well, the platform connects to it; where the job spans several systems and nobody does it, the platform does it.
Will it work where I have no signal?
Yes. Field capture in Water Management is offline first, storing locally and synchronising when a connection returns. Only around a fifth of UK farms report reliable signal across the whole holding, so this is a design assumption rather than a feature.
What happens when the scheme rules change?
Scheme rules are held as data rather than code, so a rate change, a cap change or a window closure is a content update that takes effect the same day. The platform also alerts you to what the change does to your own position.
Who owns the data I put in?
You do. The Farm Data Charter gives you a complete export in open formats at any time, and every instance of data sharing requires an explicit, revocable consent that is visible in your account.
Does it work if I farm across a border?
Yes, and that is one of the main reasons the platform exists. A business with land in more than one nation sees one reconciled view rather than two portals, with obligations and deadlines from both administrations in a single calendar.
Can my agronomist or land agent use it too?
Yes. You grant scoped, time-limited access per holding and per module, and you can revoke it in one click. Advisers never get a shared password or a blanket view.
What is the biggest limitation of this module?
Licence breach through late reconciliation. Mitigated by continuous position tracking. We would rather state that plainly than let you discover it after signing.
See Water Management running on your own holding
Thirty minutes, using your parcels, your schemes and your enterprises rather than a sample farm. No obligation and no sales script — if it does not fit your business we will say so.
- Free tier available
- No card required
- Your data stays yours