20 December

In a bid to double organic farmland, the Scottish government now requires farmers to create a 'whole-farm plan' for protecting nature to qualify for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), meaning that Organic farmers will be automatically eligible for the BPS system, a feature of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has concluded that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency  have failed to comply with environmental law in relation to sewage discharges following an investigation by the office.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and Quality Meat Scotland have announced their new Environment Baselining Pilot, with 170 farms chosen to take part. The pilot will include soil sampling and LiDAR scanning using a plane or drone to estimate above-ground carbon stocks and provide run-off water maps.

A new report from scientists convened by the United Nations found that an area as large as India globally has become arid and risks permanent desertification. The report states that soil is being lost up to 100 times faster than it is formed, and risks that prioritising oil over soil will see rates of desertification grow year on year.

We have contributed to a letter to government which highlights the causal relationship between the UK’s oversupply of sugar and soil degradation in the UK. The report explains that when sugar beets are dug, topsoil sticks to the roots, which causes the loss of 464,000 tonnes of topsoil a year.

Heavy rain in the UK and the resulting waterlogging of soil has put Christmas trees at risk of contracting a notorious type of fungus-like organism, weakening and killing them quickly. In a bid to increase their chances of survival, researchers are studying the natural defence mechanisms of Christmas trees to help the trees acclimate to climate change.

That’s a wrap for the Week in Soil in 2024! You can find the Sustainable Soils Alliance’s winter newsletter with our main achievements of the year and updates on our policy work. We wish all our readers, supporters and the soil community a relaxing festive break and a very Happy New Year! The Week in Soil will be back on Friday 10th January with our round-up of all things soil at the Oxford Real Farming Conference, as well as the usual updates.