My father, Alan Keys, who has died aged 78, was a water quality campaigner. He not only highlighted the problem of the UK’s polluted rivers, but tried to find a way to revitalise them. He transformed himself from an intensive poultry farmer into a conservationist, and his innovative use of non-invasive comfrey plants to clean agricultural runoff offered hope for farmers and rivers alike.
Born in Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, to Jack, a Methodist minister, and his wife, Lila (nee Gilpin), Alan went to Belfast boys’ model school. After studying at what is now CAFRE, the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise, Loughry, he built up a successful poultry business just outside Cookstown. Like most farmers at that time, he spread nutrient-rich chicken litter across the fields and was unaware that the practice was helping to choke aquatic life downstream from the nearby Ballinderry River, which feeds into Lough Neagh.
