The EMA Online Advisory Library is still available and updated on a daily basis. However, after 10 years of successful service in the agricultural industry the Environmental Management for Agriculture (EMA) software has now been retired. The EMA 2004 software is no longer commercially available.

The Agriculture and the Environment Research Unit (AERU) in at the University of Hertfordshire developed EMA in collaboration with Rothamsted Research, ADAS, East Malling Research, CSL, Cranfield University and IRS, Wales.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), DairyCo, Horticultural Development Council (HDC) and the Scottish Exceutive funded the work.

The EMA framework followed the principles and philosophy used for environmental management accreditations used in other industries such as ISO 14001 and EMAS.

EMA had four distinct yet interconnected components:

• The Advisory Library

• Auditing and Evaluation

• Decision Support

• Management Planning