The extensive subsidised river control and drainage works undertaken by fourteen catchment boards and financed largely by the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council had to be supported by conservation works in the upper catchments. This has led to a scheme in which farmers are subsidised for conservation works – gully, slip, sheet, and scree erosion control, and dams for flood control – which also benefit lands lower in the catchment.

Single practices such as gully control, terracing, dams, tree planting for stability and windbreaks, fencing to control grazing, initial seeding and fertilising of eroded land, and sand dune stabilisation are subsidised. Experience on cooperative demonstration farms, run in conjunction with farmers, has proved that special soil conservation practices, supported by good farming practices, not only control soil erosion and flooding but also considerably increase production. Hence the rapidly growing trend is now towards integrated erosion control and conservation management schemes, embracing the entire farm unit (conservation farm plans). Some 300 of these are now in operation.