About
Norfolk Environment Food and Farming is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee
Our members are food and farming abstractors in Norfolk, north Suffolk and South Lincolnshire, and we help them manage issues related to their water abstraction licences. For most of this work, we use the same sophisticated water resource management planning tools used by the Environment Agency and the water companies, including the Environment Agency “Northern East Anglian Chalk (NEAC)” regional groundwater flow model.
Our membership comprises 134 mainly Norfolk businesses, divided into groups based on Environment Agency catchments and Water Framework Directive waterbodies. Members currently hold 255 licences to abstract 17,000,000m3 per year, equivalent to around 46 million litres per day or 46Ml/d.
Our company evolved from the Broadland Agriculture Water Abstractors Group (BAWAG). This was set up in 1997 to help Broadland abstractors understand new EU water regulations, as well as the Environment Agency approach to changing licences in areas close to sensitive environmental receptors. The old BAWAG Committee has been replaced with a new Board and Executive. This raises subscriptions and other funds for work to protect access to water, reduce the cost of new supplies and improve our management of droughts.
Our Vision Statement
Our vision is for successful food and farming businesses in Norfolk and adjacent areas that protect and conserve the environment.
Our focus is on water and water dependent habitats & species. To achieve our vision, we’re building our capacity for water resource management and drought planning. Our main goals are to:
- Ensure members have access to reliable, sustainable and affordable water supplies, and
- Increase resilience to drought and other incidences of water scarcity.
We are committed to being open and transparent and welcome opportunities to collaborate with others. Our work will always be led by high-quality evidence, which is technically robust.
Meet the NEFF Team
Anthony Seaman
Anthony Seaman is our Chair and chairs our Programme Management Board. He is responsible for ensuring that the Board sets our direction and strategy, and that it is effective in running the organisation.
With other members of the Programme Management Board, he is also responsible for authorising work on our programmes. Anthony is an abstractor in the Wensum catchment where he lives with his family and runs the family farm.
He is also a Director for “Water For Food”, a national organisation representing the wider interests of water abstractor groups in discussions with government, Defra and the Environment Agency.
Chair
Nick Deane
Nick Deane is our Treasurer and a member of our Programme Management Board. He is responsible for managing our finances and making sure that our Board has access to the financial data it needs. With other members of the Programme Management Board, he is also responsible for authorising work on our programmes.
Nick is an abstractor in the Bure catchment and part of the group that built the new Neatishead reservoir.
He farms in partnership with his brother and is a graduate of Wye College, an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Colleges, a former NFU County Chair and current NFU Council Delegate for Norfolk.
Treasurer
Steve Moncaster
Steve Moncaster is our Managing Director. He is responsible for developing our work programmes and is accountable to the Board and the Programme Management Board for delivering these. He is an experienced hydrogeologist and water resource planner, with a background in academia, consultancy and the water industry.
Steve is a Churchill Fellow and used his award to study modern water resource management practice in the water-scarce basins of the western US, where he spent an early part of his career.
Managing Director
James Harrison
Jamie Harrison is a Director and member of our Programme Management Board (PMB). With his fellow Directors, he is responsible for setting the direction and strategy of our company and running the organisation.
With other members of the Programme Management Board, he is also responsible for authorising work on our programmes. Jamie is an abstractor in the Mun catchment.
Director
Christopher Deane
Christopher Deane is our Membership Secretary. He is responsible for matters arising from meetings with members, including helping to coordinate the work of our Planning Groups.
Christopher is a Partner in a family farm and agricultural contracting business in Broadland. He previously ran the East Norfolk Branch of the NFU, looking after 300 plus Members for over 33 years. He is Secretary and Treasurer for the Norfolk Farmers Trust and a Life Vice President of Stalham Farmers’ Club.
Membership Secretary
Richard Hirst
Richard Hirst is a Director. With his fellow Directors, he is responsible for setting the direction and strategy of our company and running the organisation.
Richard farms with his family at Ormesby, in the Thurne catchment. His cropping includes wheat, barley, sugar beet, oil seed rape, salads and potatoes and he has a significant area of land in an environmental stewardship scheme.
He also has a sucker herd, a pig fattening unit and runs a farm shop, café and seasonal attraction “Hirsty’s Family Funpark”.
Director
Tim Papworth
Tim Papworth is a Director. With his fellow Directors, he is responsible for setting the direction and strategy of our company and running the organisation.
Tim is also a director of LF Papworth Ltd, a modern mixed family farming business in North Norfolk. Tim’s passion and speciality is potatoes, but he is also a qualified butcher and a director of Papworth Farms Butchers.
Tim is Life Vice President of North Walsham Young Farmers Club, holds various positions with the NFU and is an active member of UK Irrigation Association.
Director
Harry Barnett
Harry Barnett is a Director. With his fellow Directors, he is responsible for setting the direction and strategy of our company and running the organisation. Harry is based in the north of the county on the Holkham Estate.
He is a director at Holkham Emerald Limited, a specialist potato and onion growing business which produces crops for retail, seed, and processing markets across the UK and for export.
Harry recently completed a Nuffield scholarship, researching how to address the agronomic and market challenges facing the UK potato industry, from which he is clear about the critical role of sustainable, reliable and affordable water in vegetable production.
Director
David Marsham
David Marsham is a Director. With his fellow Directors, he is responsible for setting the direction and strategy of our company and running the organisation.
David is an abstractor in the Nar catchment and a partner in the Heronhill reservoir group. He farms and is leading a Round (2) Landscape Recovery project in West Norfolk.
Director
Toby Mermagen
Toby is a Director, and member of our Programme Management Board. With his fellow Directors, he is responsible for setting direction and strategy for our company and running the organisation.
With other members of the Programme Management Board, he is also responsible for authorising work on our programmes. Toby farms 3,000 acres between Fakenham and North Walsham, including 600 acres of irrigated potatoes.
Director
Organisation and governance
Our Board sets the strategic objectives for our business and monitors progress with these based on a programme of work that is approved by our members. Our Managing Director is responsible for delivering the programme and is accountable to the Board for this. Funding and resources for our work is controlled by a Programme Management Board, which is also accountable to the Board.
It’s important to note that our company operates for the common good of our membership. We are not a consultancy and cannot be used as one. Where conflicts of interest arise or are perceived to arise, we will always seek to ensure that members are treated equally and fairly.
Business Plan
| Objective | Key Performance Indicator | Target (2025/26) | Target (2035) |
| Securing access to water | Water Resource Planning | Prepare 25-year agricultural Water Resource Management Plans for members in Planning Groups affected by the Environment Agency Broads Plan | Prepare 25-year agricultural Water Resource Management Plans for members in Planning Groups affected by the Environment Agency Catchment Permit Reviews |
| Increasing resilience | Dynamic Catchment Management & Smart Farms | Pilot a smart farm approach for managing abstraction risk during prolonged periods of dry weather, drought or other incidences of water scarcity | Extend the smart farm approach so that it can be used for dynamic water resource management at catchment scale |
| Working with Partners | Water Abstractor Groups | Establish Water For Food as sector-lead on technical matters related to water resource and drought planning | Water For Food integral to national and regional scale cross-sector water resource and drought planning |
| Delivering for Communities and the Environment | Landscape Recovery | Pilot methodology for integrating land and water management which can be used to design landscape recovery projects in Norfolk | Member led integrated water resource management planning is delivering flood risk, drought, nature and water quality benefits for communities in Norfolk |