SOIL RESILIENCE STRATEGY
LAUNCHED TO ANSWER KEY FARMING SUSTAINABILITY IMPROVEMENT QUESTIONS How can I reduce tillage without adding to my risk? What are the best ways of cutting my vulnerability to the weather? How much carbon can I realistically capture? What do I need to do to achieve the most rewarding SFI soil standards? Where should I focus my improvement efforts for the greatest overall value?
These are just a few of the practical questions the Green Horizons Soil Resilience Strategy launched this spring by national agronomy leader, Agrii is designed to answer. And, in so doing, help East Anglian growers improve the resilience of their soils and sustainability of their systems. Developed following studies with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and others, the strategy pulls together the latest understanding of soil structure, chemistry and biology. It provides a carefully structured approach to improving soil resilience based on the best available science, a thorough understanding of soil management, and sound practical advice and action. Flexible packages of laboratory and field-based assessments are designed to suit every soil condition, farming system and farm need, with an expanding team of soil management advisers providing specialist support. “Our strategy employs a range of modern lab tests and hands-on, infield appraisals to identify the current health of farmed soils,” explained Agrii sustainability manager, Amy Watkins at the Amy Watkins, Agrii Cambridgeshire sustainability manager launch. “Together with a good understanding of each farm’s particular objectives, needs and resources and practical soil
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management intelligence, these enable us to work with growers to develop the most appropriate plans of progressive improvement action. “As well as concentrating the attention on some of the best areas for and ways of improving both immediate farm productivity and long-term sustainability, our strategy provides an ideal foundation for making the most of the evolving SFI soil standards payments.” Provided through both Agrii agronomists and Rhiza specialists, the Green Horizons Soil Resilience Strategy (SRS) starts with a thorough soil health assessment involving broad spectrum laboratory nutrient, pH and organic matter testing. To which can be added more detailed measurements of soil carbon at different depths. Alongside this, it offers a suite of infield soil biology, structure and water management assessments, employing standardised methodologies for worm activity monitoring, Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS), penetrometer, slake, aggregate stability and infiltration testing. Carried out on a sample of fields representative of the farm as a whole or those posing particular management concerns – depending on individual preferences – the results of all these assessments are set out in easy-tounderstand reports. The Agrii team accepts that much remains to be fully understood about soil biology, the best ways of measuring it, and its complex interactions with soil structure and chemistry. So, their
approach has been designed for the greatest flexibility in responding to future advances in the science as well as in meeting the individual needs of different growers and systems, not to mention changing legislation and agricultural support. Appreciating there is no ideal soil biological community, it sets out to assess the most practical indicators of all-round soil health and productivity available as benchmarks for planning and monitoring improvements over time. “Capturing the detail of all our assessments in the standard field reports we have developed to present the results in the clearest and most practical way provides the best basis for benchmarking and improvement planning,” Amy Watkins said. “Our reports give an objective and scientifically-valid record of soil status, allowing individual farm teams to set realistic objectives for improvement; monitor their success in meeting them; and (increasingly importantly for the future) demonstrate their progress to others – be they customers, carbon offsetters, agricultural support providers or the general public.” “To encourage the widest possible participation, we have kept SRS charges at standard consultancy and laboratory rates as reasonable as we can,” she stressed. “The individual cost will, of course, depend on the specific assessments selected, the number of fields included and the frequency of retesting.”
ISSUE 17 | APRIL 2022
