Soil health
How ELMs will support soil health F
urther details about next year’s launch of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) were made by Defra secretary George
EXPERT VIEW
Looking aſt er soil will become an important income stream for farmers, says
Honor May Eldridge. ds.qxp_Layout 1 16/05/2019 09:06 Page 16
Eustice at last month’s Cereals event. Mr Eustice confi rmed that soil health will be at the heart of Defra’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme. The aim is to re- verse soil erosion and degradation – and pay farmers to improve soil health, he said. Two of three SFI standards to be rolled out next year by the government aim to restore soils. They are the arable and horticultural soils standard; and the improved grassland soils standard. Farmers will be paid £26-70/ha for practic-
es that improve soil health. Long overdue
Recognition of the importance of soils to agri- culture is long overdue. Healthy soils are es- sential for food security. Yet almost one third of the world’s arable soils have been lost to erosion and pollution over the last 40 years. In the UK, we lose an estimated 2.2 million tonnes of topsoil each year, costing around £45 million per year, of which £9 million is in lost
Recognition of the importance of soils to agriculture is long overdue
“ Improving UK soil health will also increase
its water holding capacity – helping to reduce fl ooding. This will become increasingly impor- tant as extreme weather events become more frequent due to climate change. As the SFI is rolled out, further measures to support soil health are likely. Farm consult- ants are well positioned to help growers and livestock producers adopt the most appropri- ate standards for their own situation. Honor May Eldridge is an environmental consultant for Wilson Wraight. Call 01284 334483 or visit
www.wilsonwraight.co.uk
production and lower yields, reducing the prof- itability of UK farms.
Increasing soil organic matter – and by ex- tension soil carbon – through methods such as cover-cropping and min-till, will also help meet Net Zero targets, something that the govern- ment is keen to deliver against.
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