Ploughing on regardless?
Lead Research Organisation:
Rothamsted Research
Department Name: Sustainable Agriculture Sciences-H
Abstract
Earthworm populations have collapsed under conventional management practices in agriculture. This is linked to a combination of intensive tillage (habitat disturbance), poor organic matter management (food supply interruption) and agro-chemical exposure (low fertility). This is a problem because earthworms are soil ecosystem engineers. Earthworms provide many soil ecosystem services including improving inorganic nutrient bioavailability, reduce Take-all and Fusarium disease incidence and severity, improving soil water balances, carbon sequestration, disperse beneficial soil bacteria and promote legume nodulation. Soils are vital to humankind, but are being rapidly degraded. The UK agri-tech strategy has identified that soil degradation and biodiversity loss threatens soil security. Thus, restoring and managing earthworm resources are vital to soil security in agriculture.
This 'Ploughing on regardless?' fellowship has two goals. Firstly to test a model agro-ecosystem based on a clover-residue-wheat management strategy to rapidly rejuvenate and maintain elevated earthworm populations. The Rothamsted long term experiment trials will be used to inform crop rotations and local minimum tillage farmers network to inform on seasonal changes to earthworm abundances. A novel bio-indicator technique based on midden counting will be developed and used for this goal. Secondly, investigations into combinations of treatments that amplify earthworm benefits to soil security and soil use in agriculture will be performed. These include wheat-cultivar earthworm interactions, earthworm mediated below-ground interactions and earthworm mediated below-ground/above ground interactions to provide a holistic understanding of minimum tillage agro-ecosystems.
These field and laboratory study outcomes will be used to provide guidance on earthworm-centred, minimum tillage farming practices. Further, provide a scientific understanding of how earthworm, AMF and fertiliser interacts to deliver below-ground ecosystem services, and the role earthworms can play in residue incorporation that affect above-ground interactions.
This 'Ploughing on regardless?' fellowship has two goals. Firstly to test a model agro-ecosystem based on a clover-residue-wheat management strategy to rapidly rejuvenate and maintain elevated earthworm populations. The Rothamsted long term experiment trials will be used to inform crop rotations and local minimum tillage farmers network to inform on seasonal changes to earthworm abundances. A novel bio-indicator technique based on midden counting will be developed and used for this goal. Secondly, investigations into combinations of treatments that amplify earthworm benefits to soil security and soil use in agriculture will be performed. These include wheat-cultivar earthworm interactions, earthworm mediated below-ground interactions and earthworm mediated below-ground/above ground interactions to provide a holistic understanding of minimum tillage agro-ecosystems.
These field and laboratory study outcomes will be used to provide guidance on earthworm-centred, minimum tillage farming practices. Further, provide a scientific understanding of how earthworm, AMF and fertiliser interacts to deliver below-ground ecosystem services, and the role earthworms can play in residue incorporation that affect above-ground interactions.
Planned Impact
The research proposed is closely aligned with the NERC Soil Security research program, and aims to inform agricultural land managers and policy makers, whilst complementing existing Soil Security grants.
Agricultural Land Managers - Ploughed agricultural land is a simple farming system requiring little land management planning, and crop yields are dependent on inputs. Development of 'no plough' approaches are required in order to manage residues and rotations, and minimise problems with nutrient availability, infiltration, pest and weed problems. A reduction in ploughing would result in escalation of the importance of the natural plough action of earthworms, which are essential to a functioning agro-ecosystem. The novel work packages proposed in this project provide a unique opportunity to track the improvements in earthworm populations, changes in soil quality and yield responses. The ultimate aim is to use soil ecosystems to reduce dependence on inputs (diesel for tillage, mineral fertilisers, agro-chemicals) to improve the sustainability of cereal agriculture.
Policy Makers - soils are vital to humankind, but they are being rapidly degraded. The UK Government Agri-tech Strategy identifies soil degradation and biodiversity loss as a threat to food security, and plans to safeguard soils within the next 15 years. The loss of soil ecosystem engineers for conventionally managed agro-ecosystems is thus critical to this policy, and the outcomes from this project potentially high impact to soil security in agriculture.
An increase in earthworm densities is associated with improved infiltration, which could reduce surface run-off and erosion, and provide benefits to water management at catchment scales (water companies, general public benefit from reduced flooding).
An increase in soil biodiversity (i.e. earthworm populations) could improve the soil web within agro-ecosystems by providing food for birds and mammals. This could improve the quality of life for the general public who use rural areas for recreation activities e.g. bird watching. Identifying partnerships between crops and earthworms would provide potential opportunities to study the pathways responsible, which could lead to commercial opportunities in crop breeding or earthworm products.
Agricultural Land Managers - Ploughed agricultural land is a simple farming system requiring little land management planning, and crop yields are dependent on inputs. Development of 'no plough' approaches are required in order to manage residues and rotations, and minimise problems with nutrient availability, infiltration, pest and weed problems. A reduction in ploughing would result in escalation of the importance of the natural plough action of earthworms, which are essential to a functioning agro-ecosystem. The novel work packages proposed in this project provide a unique opportunity to track the improvements in earthworm populations, changes in soil quality and yield responses. The ultimate aim is to use soil ecosystems to reduce dependence on inputs (diesel for tillage, mineral fertilisers, agro-chemicals) to improve the sustainability of cereal agriculture.
Policy Makers - soils are vital to humankind, but they are being rapidly degraded. The UK Government Agri-tech Strategy identifies soil degradation and biodiversity loss as a threat to food security, and plans to safeguard soils within the next 15 years. The loss of soil ecosystem engineers for conventionally managed agro-ecosystems is thus critical to this policy, and the outcomes from this project potentially high impact to soil security in agriculture.
An increase in earthworm densities is associated with improved infiltration, which could reduce surface run-off and erosion, and provide benefits to water management at catchment scales (water companies, general public benefit from reduced flooding).
An increase in soil biodiversity (i.e. earthworm populations) could improve the soil web within agro-ecosystems by providing food for birds and mammals. This could improve the quality of life for the general public who use rural areas for recreation activities e.g. bird watching. Identifying partnerships between crops and earthworms would provide potential opportunities to study the pathways responsible, which could lead to commercial opportunities in crop breeding or earthworm products.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Jacqueline Louise Stroud (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Dummett I
(2023)
Monitoring the effects of pesticide pellets to address farmers' concerns on soil fauna, specifically earthworms
in Soil Use and Management
Stroud J
(2022)
Working with UK farmers to investigate anecic earthworm middens and soil biophysical properties
in Annals of Applied Biology
Stroud J
(2023)
The post-registration monitoring of glyphosate-treated plants using anecic earthworms
in Annals of Applied Biology
Stroud JL
(2019)
Soil health pilot study in England: Outcomes from an on-farm earthworm survey.
in PloS one
Stroud JL
(2018)
Co-produced data: open access tests trust.
in Nature
Description | (1) Role of earthworms on soil structure: I have found that the soil directly below the middens that the L.terrestris earthworm forms are hot-spots of soil aggregation with significantly different soil architecture, and this had led to new hypotheses on how fundamental soil structure changes with the adoption of reduced tillage agriculture (2) Role of earthworms on plant nutrient content: whilst I found the presence of earthworms increased the micronutrient content of some elements in wheat seedlings, this did not lead to any significant differences in wheat grain composition, indicating the importance of fertilizer (3) Impact of agricultural management on soil health: I've mapped the National Capability LTE trials at Rothamsted to provide unique insights into the impact of conventional tillage agriculture on soil physical, biological and chemical status revealing the role of organic amendments on the persistence of these features (4) I've completed two large surveys on soil health on farm, indicating that up to 45 % fields have earthworm community structure problems and up to 50% silty-clay fields have problems with aggregate stability. |
Exploitation Route | The DEFRA (2015) Soils Research - Evidence Review highlighted a critical gap in reduced and no-tillage practices on the delivery of key ecosystem services in the UK. This research is unique, and is helping to fill this gap that can be taken forward to inform on soil functioning and recovery. The methods that I have used can be developed into practical tools for advisors and farmers to produce clear soil management advice for all agricultural production systems. |
Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
Description | My soil science findings have had an economic and societal impact through people being interested in my research and inviting me to share my research and findings at many public and farming-specific events. Through these events (listed under 'outreach') I have (1) increased public awareness of soil science and its role in contemporary agriculture (e.g. 1000 people interacted with my #wormscience exhibit at the Science Museum, London, with the average interaction time of 3 - 5 minutes and our exhibit helped to inform the museum on ways to increase visitor interest in the soil section of their new agriculture gallery, (2) farming specific events including agricultural shows, field workshops, on-farm talks, social media content on soil science helps to enhance the knowledge and skill of agronomists, farmers to support their business - I have spoken to/interacted with approx 1500 people this year, and some of my twitter video content on earthworm behaviour has been viewed >10,000 times, and (3) using this information helps to supports the environmental sustainability and reduction of the impact of agriculture |
First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
Description | Agricultural soil health: using earthworms as soil health indicators |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | My funding from the NERC Soil Security Programme has enabled me to research Soil Health Assessments: There is currently no agreed method, nor national monitoring scheme for soil health which limits the sustainability of soil management practices for crop production. My research on earthworms in agriculture as indicators of soil health has been adopted by the AHDB (levy board funded by growers and farmers), including an information sheet to advise on my '60-minute earthworm profile' which indicates soil over-cultivation, with practical application at their national monitor and strategic farm network to support soils education and the skill level of the grower and farmer workforce. Identifying over-cultivation informs farmers of the need to change to reduced tillage for crop establishment from conventional tillage. My 'introduction to earthworms' leaflet is used for on-farm soil health apps e.g. https://soils.sectormentor.com/soil-tests/ |
Description | Impact Accelerator/OTSBII award Industry support |
Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/SCA/Rothamsted/17 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2017 |
End | 02/2018 |
Description | 2-day exhibit at Groundswell (The NoTill show) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I was invited to contribute to the Groundswell event again, this included a 1-page summary of my NERC research in the event guide (2000 printed copies circulated, and distribution list of 2000), plus a stand to support farmer engagement (I received 50 soil samples for my request to do an aggregate stability survey, receiving samples from Wales, Ireland, N.Ireland and England) and gave a talk in the packed soil tent. The event is well regarded in the farming community, 87 % attendees farm at least 200 acres and 97 % recommend the event to others. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | 3-day wormscience event at the Science Museum, London |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 1000 people interacted with my wormscience event (including those that had heard about it from the BBC Today show) which I had designed to inform the public about contemporary agricultural soil science - the interaction was counted by a member of museum staff. This was a bespoke hands-on exhibit and the museum collected detailed feedback as this event was also aimed to discover what visitors think about soil and to find ways to increase interest in the soil section of the new Agriculture gallery. Visitors spent 3 - 5 minutes interacting with the wormscience exhibit (the museum average is 1 minute), we had 100 % positive feedback, and 50 % of the visitors interacted with each section (3 sections). The findings indicated that visitors were able to understand the difference between a healthy and unhealthy soil, and key lessons for the Contemporary Agriculture interpretation of soil. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | AHDB Leicester monitor farm talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Approx. 20 people working in agriculture came to the monitor farm event, where I discussed the first year results on soil health assessments under soil management practices on the Leicester monitor farm. This led to interesting discussions, and questions in future research directions to support farming activities |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Activities 2018 - 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Please note NERC already have this information for my rejected (without feedback) impact award application. Downloadable and printed factsheets written by Stroud & nationally distributed by AHDB, the UK Agriculture Levy Board (100,000 farming and supply chain businesses in the UK) "How to count worms" and "interpretation" factsheets. Nationally used by farmers to survey >3000 hectares in 2018, and count approximately 20, 000 earthworms in 2018. I held a workshop and hosted stakeholders including DEFRA, water companies and farmers - NERC were invited but didn't come (but BBSRC and AHDB representatives came along). The research and workshop used for the research paper pre-print - which was in top 5 % of research outputs ever tracked by altmetric (out of 11, 889 913). Research of national interest with broadcast coverage included Sky News, BBC Today show, BBC Farming Today, BBC Inside Science, Talk radio with Paul Ross and multiple BBC local radio interviews. Nationals including The Sun, The Times, Guardian, The Independent and regionals including The Evening Times, Yorkshire Post, East Anglia Daily Times, Eastern Daily Press, Ipswich Star and The London Economic. Farming press included, Farmers Weekly, Farming UK, Scottish farmer, FG Insight, South East Farmer, Environtec, Garden Organic, Direct Driller, Gallagher, Crop Focus, CPM Magazine, Potatoes Australia. For World Soil Day on 4th December 2018, my blog post reached nearly 0.5 million people and had 100, 000 engagements (monitoring of Facebook metrics). Podcasts on Farmerama. Exhibits for farmers at Cereals 2018 (leading technical event for the arable industry, 20,000 visitors), Tendring Show 2018 (Agricultural show Essex, 20, 000 visitors) and Groundswell Show 2018 (The NoTill Show, 500 visitors). Invited public exhibits including LEAF Open Farm Sunday 2018 (Rt Hon Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Rural Affairs), LEAF Teenager day 2018 (Royal Countess of Wessex), Festival of Ideas - Rothamsted, and the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, London. Soil: Our Buried Treasure, July 2018, with my photograph used to advertise exhibit for the programme, Evening Standard Farming Event 2018 (with JB Gill). In addition 18 national on-farm events (total audience of 1000 people) and one invited international event (SWAC with 1700 people per day plus live streaming across the states and Canada) raising the profile of soil science, educating people about earthworms in soils and engaging end-users of research to help to realise soil health in practice. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
Description | CPM magazine write-up about earthworms |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | My well received talk at YEN was followed up by a 1-page article in the CPM magazine (April Issue, 2017 the best-read journal by 11,500 UK arable farmers and agronomists) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | CTF workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I was invited to give demos and presentations for various CTF farmers events during 2017 about the role of earthworms in agriculture, and my research. This led to a number of discussions, and emails afterwards requesting more information. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | CropTec 2017: 29 - 30th November |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Approx. 150 people came to my talk on soil health and earthworms, within the 'Soils the keystone to profitability' session on both days, this led to some interesting discussions in the Q and A, and I received a number of follow-up emails afterwards requesting more information. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Earthworm article for country store |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I was contacted by a journalist who was writing an article for the Mole Valley Farmers growers and customers, who had heard me speak at an event and wanted to do a write-up of earthworms. It was published and circulated. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Earthworm talk for Gardeners |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I'd given a talk at the Natural History Museum, Tring (2016), and I someone who had heard me recommended as a speaker to the Chalfont St Giles Bucks Association. I prepared a 30-minute presentation about my research, and then spent the next 90 minutes answering non-stop questions from a very engaged audience. Hugely enjoyable event, and I have received more invitations from gardening associations to give talks this year. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Earthworms at the Tendring Show |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was invited to the Tendring show (Essex County's Premier Agricultural Event with up to 20, 000 visitors), to engage the general public about agricultural soils, children were most interested in the exhibit and found out more about earthworms. It was very successful and I have been invited back this year. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Healthy Soils Farmer Workshop (VASS) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 45 growers and farmers attended an on-farm soil health assessment, and learned how to assess their earthworm populations, sparked questions on soils and discussion in the meeting room afterwards, and led to additional invitations to workshops for farmers |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Hutchinsons Winter Farmer Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I was invited to give a presentation at the Hutchinsons Winter Farmer Technical Conference, so I prepared a 20-minute talk for the 300-people. This led a large number of questions about earthworms and invitations to farms (approx. 30 mins of questions after lunch). On twitter, it was said that my talk was the best one of the day. My well-received presentation led to a farmer writing to me about his earthworm populations who had heard about my talk from another farmer (and isn't even a customer of Hutchinsons), and I wrote back. This led to further invitations to give soil health talks in 2018. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Interview for Farmers weekdly |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I was interviewed about my field trial by farmers weekly after travellers broke in and drove around in circles - ruining the crop (just before harvest) and causing a significant legacy of compaction problems. I recieved a lot of emails and twitter support from the agricultural community. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invitation to BBC Radio 4 Saturday Live with Monty Don |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Invited on the 1-hour Saturday Live BBC Radio 4 show as a guest with Monty Don and others, which gave me an opportunity to talk about my resaerch. The show received a number of questions about earthworms, and I received a number of emails afterwards. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invitation to speak at the YEN Ideas Lab 31/07/2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I was invited to give a presentation on how earthworms may help to unlock yield potential through their burrowing activities (to encourage crop rooting), this led to a debate and interest in doing tram-line trials to measure the effects of earthworms. The organiser said my talk was the best one of the day, and led to a number of other invites and a write-up in CPM magazine |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited by Adama to their Thought Leadership Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A small group of farmers came together to discuss soil health, assessment and management, sparking questions and discussion afterwards. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited to a soil health event for Hutchinsons, Cornwall |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 50-people visited the on-farm event for a demo on how to measure their soil health, this led to significant interest by the agronomy company who are developing their soil analysis portfolio |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited to discuss my #wormscience exhibit at the Science Museum, London on BBC Today show (Radio 4) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was invited to talk about my #wormscience exhibit for half term at the Science Museum, London on the BBC Today show. A number of visitors to the exhibit said that they heard about this via the radio which stimulated their interest to visit and ask me questions |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited to do the soil health monitoring for the new AHDB strategic farm |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I am working with AHDB to help with soil health assessments, with my earthworm research and methods being adopted for the baseline sampling for their new strategic farm. These activities are well covered on twitter, and led to invitations to give talks |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited to give a talk at the YEN Awards Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Gave a short talk about earthworms to the Yield Enhancement Network - this led to a significant increase in soil biology, with the idea that farmers could measure their earthworm populations in addition to crop nutrition. There led to follow up discussions on how we might approach this |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited to give an earthworm talk to the German CA farmers association (visiting UK, farm in Lincoln) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Approx. 50 german farmers attended an event at a Lincoln Farm where I was invited to give a talk, this sparked questions and discussion and follow up for the earthworm guides that they were interested in adapting. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Procam Advanced Agronomy Seminar to train junior agronomists |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | I was invited by Procam (agronomy company) to give a talk and provide a demo to their young agronomists on earthworm sampling and monitoring for soil health. There were questions and discussion afterwards, and led to the agronomists contacting me for more information to find out more about earthworms (e.g. my research papers) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Radio show/Podcast called Growing Wild (including Liz Bowles, head of Farming at the Soil Association) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was invited to do a telephone interview on soil health which was turned into a podcast for the show, and other interviewees included Liz Bowles from the soil association. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Set up @wormscience on Twitter, and now have 1500 followers |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Established a twitter profile to share my NERC research and it is popular - I have thousands of followers, lots of questions from farmers about their earthworms, and some of my content has been viewed 10,000 times. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Talk to organic farmers about soil health and earthworms in Wiltshire (including Helen Browning) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I was invited to give a presentation about earthworms, which led to a very engaged audience asking me many questions (for 30 minutes after my 10 minute talk), and then we had a very thorough demo and discussion of the pros/cons of tillage (organic farmers have to intensively cultivate their soils for weed control). I was invited to a number of farms to do an earthworm survey, and I also got to see one of the first crimper-rollers being built. My talk inspired a blog by Helen Browning about earthworms in agriculture. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.soilassociation.org/blogs/2017/april/helens-notes-from-the-farm-week-6/ |
Description | WAC-UNA invited talk: How women can improve the quality of soil and the food supply? |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 9 people attended an evening seminar in London, which sparked questions and discussion on the role of women in agriculture |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Wormscience at Cereals |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I interacted with 300 people at a farmer version of my wormscience exhibit at Cereals (up to 20,000 visitors, leading technical event for the arable industry) on the Rothamsted stand. I answered a number of questions, and this led to a number of invitations to give presentations and talks to local farmers associations given the high interest in soil management practices. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Wormscience in farmers weekly |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | My hand-outs on earthworms were reported and written about in the farmers weekly Cereals write-up. This led to further requests to give talks by agronomy companies |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Write up in CPM magazine - July issue (after groundwell) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | My exhibit and talk were covered in the CPM magazine write-up of the Groundswell event, the best-read journal by 11,500 UK arable farmers and agronomists. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |