24 May 2024
Details have been announced about 2024’s Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer, which will be rolled out from early June. The expanded offer will comprise of 102 actions, with 20 new actions and 50 simplified Countryside Stewardship mid-tier actions being merged into SFI. New actions for soil health include payments for no-till farming and multi-species spring, summer or autumn cover crops.
It has been announced that registration for Northern Ireland’s Soil Nutrient Health Scheme (SNHS) will open at the end of June for farmers in north Tyrone and County Derry/Londonderry (Zone 3). The scheme offers all farmers in Northern Ireland a baseline soil assessment, and over 90% of farms in Zones 1 and 2 have previously registered with the scheme. Participation will be a requirement to receive payments under future farm support schemes.
The second round of funding from the Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS) has been announced, totalling over £1 million between eight projects. The fund supports private investment in nature in Scotland,. New projects include a Soil Association pilot on natural capital implementation and a project for urban nature in Edinburgh. A total of 35 projects have been awarded almost £5 million from FIRNS since its launch.
A pilot project led by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has launched which will baseline emissions from 170 farms to help them achieve net zero goals. The project will measure greenhouse gas emissions, carbon stocks, water runoff and use soil analysis to create a standardised dataset across various farming sectors to enable more accurate reporting.
Research from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has shown that arable farmers face losing nearly £1 billion in revenue due to the recent wet winter. Their analysis found that revenue from key crops is set to fall by 19%, though new figures released to parliament suggest that SFI income could offset much of this loss, with the ECIU estimating that 75% of their example farms could generate payments which exceed these.
A new project led by Forestry England is planning to restore 8,000 hectares of forest in a bid to boost biodiversity. Forestry England will intervene less in four areas and hope to reintroduce lost wildlife and fungi to restore soil. Forestry practices will continue and visitors will still be welcome, but it is hoped that the reduced intervention will increase climate resilience and improve soil health, air quality and carbon storage.
A carbon capture project in Cambridgeshire hopes to sequester more than 4,000 tonnes of carbon in peat soils through nature restoration. The site, which is owned by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, has been planted with native grasses, grazing animals will soon be moved, and it will be made into a wetland habitat. Trials will later be held to understand what crops can be grown in wet soils.
Cosmetics brand L’Oreal are studying soil microbes and soil quality to understand how they can improve the standard cosmetics ingredients without increasing fertiliser use. Their partnership with the National University of Singapore and this research is part of the brand’s understanding that consumers are moving away from synthetic ingredients and want more natural products.
A study has shown that antibiotic genes are ‘ubiquitous’ in Scottish soils, leading to concerns around the implications for human health. Researchers from Scotland, England and China conducted the first national level study to test Scotland’s soils for microbial resistance and found high levels, which could mean that, if absorbed by humans, the effectiveness of antibiotics will be reduced.
We will be taking a short break from the Week in Soil blog next week, we’ll be back on 7th June!