MycoRhizaSoil: Combining wheat genotypes with cultivation methods to facilitate mycorrhizosphere organisms improving soil quality and crop resilience
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Animal and Plant Sciences
Abstract
Loss of soil organic matter content and soil macroaggregates (crumbs) as a result of arable cultivation reduces soil water and nutrient holding capacity and are major global constraints on crop yields and efficient use of fertilizer. In the UK wheat yield have not increased over nearly 20 years due to interactions between genetic, environment and management constraints.
Modern wheat breeding has focussed on selection for disease resistance and increasing yield and quality of the grain, without consideration of other traits that can influence soil quality and ultimately, the long-term sustainabilty of soil. Soil erosion is a major global problem exacerbated by ploughing, loss of soil organic matter and the macroaggregates that hold soil together against water and wind erosion. One of the most important functional groups of organisms that are involved in stabilizing soil macroaggregates and contributing to soil organic matter storage are symbiotic fungi called mycorrhizas that receive sugars from plant roots in return for providing nutrients and water to the plants. We have recently shown that some modern wheat varieties have limited or no ability to form mycorrhizal symbiosis, and members of our consortium were amongst the first to show that conventional arable farming reduces the diversity and functioning of these symbionts. Loss of these symbionts and their functioning is thought to be contributory to loss of soil quality, both directly through effects on soil organic matter and soil structure, and indirectly though reductions in defences against pathogens which are induced by the symbiosis and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria that are thought to act synergistically with mycorrhizas.
MycoRhizaSoil will determine the crucial roles mycorrhiza and co-associated soil microorganisms play in maintaining soil structure and organic matter content, which are required for high yields, and directly addresses for the first time the benefits of selecting wheat genotypes and less intensive management to enhance the functional benefits of these crop-microbe interactions to deliver lower input, more sustainable and resilient wheat production.
Our approach combines laboratory and field based research using wheat lines that differ in mycorrhiza-forming capacity but are otherwise genetically very similar, selected over 500 lines of wheat bred from two parents that differed in mycorrhiza-forming ability. The laboratory-based research will resolve the mechanistic basis of mycorrhiza-induced systemic defenses to important root and shoot pathogens that cause major yield losses of wheat in the UK and globally. In a series of sequential field trials using the selected wheat lines we will determine the extent to which artificial inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi, the temporary conversion of crop land to grassland (to restore mycorrhiza) and adoption of no-tillage leads to improvements in soil quality and crop resilence to drought, excess water and native diseases compared to wheat grown conventionally with annual tillage.
Our agenda-setting research programme identifies a new set of targets for optimising plant breeding and arable management for sustainable wheat production. Our ambitious ultimate goal is to provide the scientific evidence to evaluate the benefits of simultaneously reducing the need for ploughing (one of the most fossil-fuel demanding farm operations and one of the most damaging to soil conservation and sustainability) and increasing the activities of beneficial soil microorganisms through wheat genotype selection. In combination we predict these approaches will increase the storage of soil organic carbon in the surface soil, help restore water-stable macroaggregates and increase crop resilience to climate stress (too much and too little water) and diseases.
Modern wheat breeding has focussed on selection for disease resistance and increasing yield and quality of the grain, without consideration of other traits that can influence soil quality and ultimately, the long-term sustainabilty of soil. Soil erosion is a major global problem exacerbated by ploughing, loss of soil organic matter and the macroaggregates that hold soil together against water and wind erosion. One of the most important functional groups of organisms that are involved in stabilizing soil macroaggregates and contributing to soil organic matter storage are symbiotic fungi called mycorrhizas that receive sugars from plant roots in return for providing nutrients and water to the plants. We have recently shown that some modern wheat varieties have limited or no ability to form mycorrhizal symbiosis, and members of our consortium were amongst the first to show that conventional arable farming reduces the diversity and functioning of these symbionts. Loss of these symbionts and their functioning is thought to be contributory to loss of soil quality, both directly through effects on soil organic matter and soil structure, and indirectly though reductions in defences against pathogens which are induced by the symbiosis and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria that are thought to act synergistically with mycorrhizas.
MycoRhizaSoil will determine the crucial roles mycorrhiza and co-associated soil microorganisms play in maintaining soil structure and organic matter content, which are required for high yields, and directly addresses for the first time the benefits of selecting wheat genotypes and less intensive management to enhance the functional benefits of these crop-microbe interactions to deliver lower input, more sustainable and resilient wheat production.
Our approach combines laboratory and field based research using wheat lines that differ in mycorrhiza-forming capacity but are otherwise genetically very similar, selected over 500 lines of wheat bred from two parents that differed in mycorrhiza-forming ability. The laboratory-based research will resolve the mechanistic basis of mycorrhiza-induced systemic defenses to important root and shoot pathogens that cause major yield losses of wheat in the UK and globally. In a series of sequential field trials using the selected wheat lines we will determine the extent to which artificial inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi, the temporary conversion of crop land to grassland (to restore mycorrhiza) and adoption of no-tillage leads to improvements in soil quality and crop resilence to drought, excess water and native diseases compared to wheat grown conventionally with annual tillage.
Our agenda-setting research programme identifies a new set of targets for optimising plant breeding and arable management for sustainable wheat production. Our ambitious ultimate goal is to provide the scientific evidence to evaluate the benefits of simultaneously reducing the need for ploughing (one of the most fossil-fuel demanding farm operations and one of the most damaging to soil conservation and sustainability) and increasing the activities of beneficial soil microorganisms through wheat genotype selection. In combination we predict these approaches will increase the storage of soil organic carbon in the surface soil, help restore water-stable macroaggregates and increase crop resilience to climate stress (too much and too little water) and diseases.
Technical Summary
This project will use double-haploid lines of wheat derived from a mapping population of over 500 lines in which the parents have contrasting phenotype for arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) competence, to determine the effect of wheat mycorrhiza on rhizosphere microbial populations, AM-inducible defences and soil quality (soil organic matter content, macroaggregate stability, soil porosity and water holding capacity). Intensive modern arable farming methods combined with selection of less AM-competent wheat is hypothesised to have contributed to the loss of soil structure and organic matter content that now is a major constraint on crop productivity, especially under conditions of inadequate or too much rainfall. AM fungi have been shown to be vital players in soil aggregate stability and contribute to soil organic matter storage but to date the possibility of actively selecting wheat varieties and agronomic management practices to synergistically harness the benefits of AM fungi and associated Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) for sustainable soil quality has not been considered. We will resolve the basis of mycorrhiza inducible defences against major wheat fungal pathogens- take all and Septoria, and the potentialy synergistic interactions between mycorrhiza and PGPR. We will use wheat lines with contrasting mycorrhizal competence, but otherwise genetically very similar, selected from the mapping population. In the field we will establish a sequential trial of the wheat lines on plots under conventional tillage and no-tillage management, with and without addition of commercially available mycorrhizal inoculum. In addition a grass ley will be established and planted with the wheat lines after 3 years- to assess how this traditional way of rebuilding soil quality compares to the other management treatments. The work will quantify mycorrhizosphere carbon fluxes into aggregates using 14C and conduct metagenomic analyses of mycorrhizosphere communities.
Planned Impact
This project will resolve the fundamental role of soil microbes in sustainable wheat production, providing essential genetic and performance data that have the potential to underpin the development of new wheat varieties, optimised for sustainable low-input agriculture. The environmental benefits of the project include more sustainable agro-ecosystems with less dependence on chemical inputs that may have detrimental environmental impacts, and restoration of critical soil functions that have been degraded by conventional agriculture.
The societal benefits from the project include increased food security, enhanced farmer's incomes and reduced occupational exposure of farmers to fungicide/pesticides. In addition, as new varieties developed as a result of the outcomes of this project are likely to give greatest financial benefits under less intensive management, they will help to make sustainable agriculture increasingly economically attractive, and thereby help to promote biodiversity and improved quality of life and environment in rural areas. These core outcomes of the project directly influence 8 specific stakeholder groups (pre and post farmgate as well as policy makers): (i) Farmers, farm managers - benefit through new soil management practices (ii) Statutory agencies involved in water and soil conservation (E.g. Natural England, Syngenta Soil and Water Protection) (iii) Game and Wildlife Conservation (iv) Cereal Processors (v) Government policy makers (DEFRA) - innovation in agricultural industries (vi) Supermarkets (vii) The wider public (links with aims of GFS - improved productivity, sustainable crops), (viii) RAGT Seeds (one of Europe's largest cereal breeders) - new market opportunity as well as the principal route to commercialisation of data produced from this project in the form of new wheat varieties.
This project represent an industrial collaboration with international wheat breeder, RAGT Seeds Ltd., for the development and commercialisation of new cultivars of wheat that require reduced input in terms of pesticides and inorganic fertilisers by harnessing beneficial soil microbes. This provides a clear opportunity for commercialisation of our outputs.
To disseminate information and promote the benefits of MycoRhizaSoil research and ensure the relevant stakeholders are consulted throughout the project we will hold 3 events:
- A Launch event in September 2014 at the Hazelwood Hotel, close to the University of Leeds farm, to establish members of a user liaison group. Invitees will include Velcourt Farm Management, Harper Adams University, RAGT Seeds and the Game and Wildlife Trust Allerton Project)
- A 2-day project review and outreach planning meeting in April 2017 at the Allerton Project Visitor Centre at Loddington with selected external stakeholders.
- One day outreach meeting in the final year of the project at the Allerton Project Visitor Centre to demonstrate research outcomes and communicate findings to farmers and policy makers, following the successful model we used in a meeting co-hosted with the Organic Growers Alliance and facilitated by the Technology Strategy Board Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network (see http://bit.ly/HNiOOs [ES-KTN site] & http://bit.ly/1cKLwND [OGA site]).
The societal benefits from the project include increased food security, enhanced farmer's incomes and reduced occupational exposure of farmers to fungicide/pesticides. In addition, as new varieties developed as a result of the outcomes of this project are likely to give greatest financial benefits under less intensive management, they will help to make sustainable agriculture increasingly economically attractive, and thereby help to promote biodiversity and improved quality of life and environment in rural areas. These core outcomes of the project directly influence 8 specific stakeholder groups (pre and post farmgate as well as policy makers): (i) Farmers, farm managers - benefit through new soil management practices (ii) Statutory agencies involved in water and soil conservation (E.g. Natural England, Syngenta Soil and Water Protection) (iii) Game and Wildlife Conservation (iv) Cereal Processors (v) Government policy makers (DEFRA) - innovation in agricultural industries (vi) Supermarkets (vii) The wider public (links with aims of GFS - improved productivity, sustainable crops), (viii) RAGT Seeds (one of Europe's largest cereal breeders) - new market opportunity as well as the principal route to commercialisation of data produced from this project in the form of new wheat varieties.
This project represent an industrial collaboration with international wheat breeder, RAGT Seeds Ltd., for the development and commercialisation of new cultivars of wheat that require reduced input in terms of pesticides and inorganic fertilisers by harnessing beneficial soil microbes. This provides a clear opportunity for commercialisation of our outputs.
To disseminate information and promote the benefits of MycoRhizaSoil research and ensure the relevant stakeholders are consulted throughout the project we will hold 3 events:
- A Launch event in September 2014 at the Hazelwood Hotel, close to the University of Leeds farm, to establish members of a user liaison group. Invitees will include Velcourt Farm Management, Harper Adams University, RAGT Seeds and the Game and Wildlife Trust Allerton Project)
- A 2-day project review and outreach planning meeting in April 2017 at the Allerton Project Visitor Centre at Loddington with selected external stakeholders.
- One day outreach meeting in the final year of the project at the Allerton Project Visitor Centre to demonstrate research outcomes and communicate findings to farmers and policy makers, following the successful model we used in a meeting co-hosted with the Organic Growers Alliance and facilitated by the Technology Strategy Board Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network (see http://bit.ly/HNiOOs [ES-KTN site] & http://bit.ly/1cKLwND [OGA site]).
Publications
Royal Agricultural Society Of England
(2022)
FARM OF THE FUTURE: JOURNEY TO NET ZERO
Holden J
(2019)
The role of hedgerows in soil functioning within agricultural landscapes
in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
Guest EJ
(2022)
Soil macroaggregation drives sequestration of organic carbon and nitrogen with three-year grass-clover leys in arable rotations.
in The Science of the total environment
Austen N
(2022)
Experimental evaluation of biological regeneration of arable soil: The effects of grass-clover leys and arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculants on wheat growth, yield, and shoot pathology.
in Frontiers in plant science
| Description | Within 2 years of planting a grass-clover leys on land that has been continuously cropped for decades, we have seen marked improvements in soil structure and biological functioning- these results are not yet published but provide an early indication of the anticipated longer-term benefits of reinstating the use of leys for soil health to be tested in this project. We have achieved near-average UK wheat yields but using less than 20% of typical UK N fertilizer use by direct drilling into ley in 2017-18 season. Wheat plants with commercial mycorrhizal inoculum added to soil showed reduced ear pathology at harvest, and there were interactions between tillage treatment and extent of pathology. Soil quality in grass-clover leys introduced into arable rotations showed marked improvement in water-holding capacity, aggregation and organic carbon storage in macroaggregates (large crumbs). These soil quality improvements reduce flood risks and risks of chemical and soil run-off fields into water courses. |
| Exploitation Route | See earlier response with respect to our engagement activities with farmers and land managers. The Involvement of Jonathan Leake in the recently funded NERC Yorkshire iCASP consortium as the Academic Lead for Sustainable Agriculture & Communications provides a clear pathway to assist delivering on these larger scale benefits from rhizophere biology effects on soil health to hydrological functioning to catchment-scale. Importantly, our findings, once more complete, also should feed into post-brexit farming policies especially considering the impacts we are seeing that can affect hydrological functions such as run-off. We have fed key findings of our research to Defra in relation to future farm payment and environmental land Management Schemes. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | The extent to which conventional intensive cultivation of cereal crops in short rotations with no break in cropping for decades has impacted soil quality, as demonstrated by our research is of major concern to farmers, agricultural advisors, land managers and estate owners. These findings fed directly into the evidence we submitted to the Government Inquiry into soil health concerning loss of soil organic matter and soil compaction, and our concerns about the lack of effective monitoring and lack of protection for UK arable soils. The inclusion of sustainable soils as a goal of the 25 year Environment plan, and our subsequent lobbying and formal submissions to Defra consultations have helped to improve the profile of soil health monitoring in UK government agricultural policy. Over the past three years we have built a highly effective impact pathway to farmers and land managers through our working directly with farmers in conducting research on their land, reporting our finding back to them (Kellogg's Origins), and through group meetings presentations and farm visits with farmers (Asda Pathfinders, Kellogg's Origins). Our spin-off work on mycorrhizas in winter cover crops has been of considerable interest to these practitioners. The snowballed- series of meetings with agricultural consultants Agrii and the Crown Estate resulted from their immediate interest in our work on soil quality, cropping systems, mycorrhizas and rhizosphere interactions in arable cropping at our first meetings, and their wanting to engage with us- resulting in a series of follow up meetings and the development of collaborations and funding applications with these partners. We have continued to develop highly effective knowledge exchange pipelines from this project and the related project SoilBioHedge with very frequent invitations to speak to farmers and farmer advisory groups through our project partner link with the Allerton Project, and through the P3 centre of excellence for translational plant science at the University of Sheffield coordinating workshops with stakeholders in agri-business, and through an expanding network of contacts that have seen our presentations on the research. The effects of our leys on soil quality are very visible and are catching a lot of interest. The impact has continued in 2020-21 through contributions to documents prepared by the Sustainable Soils Alliance to influence Defra policies on soil protection and UK soil monitoring and management for sustainability, and through invitations to speak at major industry events such as the Agrii webinar with over 100 participants on soil biology and health in February 2021. Our findings have continued to be of interest to farmers and the farming community - with further invited talks and presentations including to over 800 participants in an international soil biodiversity webinar in 2022, and events with farmers. This interest has continued in 2023, with presentations on leys in regenerative farming at the Great Yorkshire show and a series of other stakeholder / knowledge exchange and farm visit events as documented in the submission for this award. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Evidence submitted to Environment-food-and-rural-affairs-committee Soil Health Inquiry on the importance of maintaining soil stocks and soil health- and advise on how to assess and monitor soil health |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Restoring soil quality through re-integration of leys and sheep into arable rotations |
| Amount | £769,325 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/R021716/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2019 |
| End | 10/2022 |
| Description | Soil Security Capital Equipment Award: Modules for mobile laboratory: Advion expression-S Compact Mass Spectrometer |
| Amount | £1,127,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | CC16_077 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2016 |
| Description | UKRI BBSRC Seeding Awards for novel crops for UK arable farming |
| Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2022 |
| End | 02/2023 |
| Description | White Rose BBSRC DTP studentship: Linking metabolomics and metagenomics to resolve plant-microbial interactions involved in soil aggregation. With Dr Thorunn Helgason University of York |
| Amount | £93,668 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 09/2021 |
| Description | White Rose Sustainable Agriculture: BIOchemical-physical-biological function of Sludge in Agriculture Soils (BIOSAS) Research Studentship network. Effects of sludge-rainfall interactions on soil quality and wheat production |
| Amount | £195,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | White Rose University Consortium |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 03/2020 |
| Description | Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust |
| Organisation | Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We are undertaking research jointly with the trust on the Allerton Demonstration Farm in Leicestershire. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Given the strong complementarity of the SoilBioHedge project to the current goals and activities of the Trust, we are able to offer considerable in-kind support for this project. This includes offering arable fields and leys of different ages, together with hedgerows and field margins and deciduous woodlands which are already in place that would be ideal sites to sample in the landscape-scale parts of the project. The Trust also has a modern laboratory on site which will be available for sample preparation. We will provide advice on management of the experimental plots at Leeds University Farm, based on our considerable expertise in all aspects of agronomy and crop production, particularly the use of zero-tillage, and minimum tillage. |
| Impact | Ongoing winter-cover crop trials of effects on mycorrhization. This collaboration has led to a number of impact and outreach activities listed elsewhere. In particular Dr Alastair Leake, Head of Policy and Development at the Allerton Project was invited to meet with the Minister Michael Gove in early 2018 to discuss options for farm payments in future, and Dr Leake included in his presentation the case for paying subsidies to farmers to grow leys in arable rotations to improve soil quality. The findings from our research provided additional support for this policy, and the policy is consistent with goals of the 25 year environment plan which include comments on the potential benefits of leys. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Invitation to join the Yorkshire Agricultural Society Farmer-Scientist Network, and subsequent appointment as vice-chair of the network, following invited application in 2023. |
| Organisation | Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | I have contributed to knowledge exchange with farmers involved in, or interested in regenerative agriculture, both at the Great Yorkshire Show in June 2022 in which I presented posters, demonstrated soil quality improvement by ley using soil slices, and presented a 100 slide rolling loop presentation of key policy and practice implications of the research findings on leys from the consortium research projects I have led on leys. this was followed-up by the invitation to be guest scientist speaker at the regenerative agriculture-focused farm walk and talk in November 2022. Through these events I have made new contacts with farmers interested in trialing herbal leys and grass-clover leys. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS) funded the Regenerative Agriculture tent at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2022. The YAS also funded the farm walk in November, to which I was invited as the guest scientist speaker. The Yorkshire Agricultural Society has recently increased the hours of the employee who coordinates the Farmer-Scientist network, and the stand for the Farmer-Scientist Network at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2023 will be larger than in previous years, and include invited speakers with the logistical and financial support provided by the Society. |
| Impact | The Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS) funded the Regenerative Agriculture tent at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2022. The YAS also funded the farm walk in November, to which I was invited as the guest scientist speaker. The Yorkshire Agricultural Society has recently increased the hours of the employee who coordinates the Farmer-Scientist network, and the stand for the Farmer-Scientist Network at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2023 will be larger than in previous years, and include invited speakers with the logistical and financial support provided by the Society. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | RAGT Seeds |
| Organisation | RAGT Seeds |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We are studying mycorrhization in relation to varietal variation in wheat- and its consequences for soil biology and soil chemistry and fuinctioning. |
| Collaborator Contribution | RAGT Seeds are providing the wheat seeds used in our trials and are involved in seed breeding and guiding selection of lines to be taken forward in the work. The initial phase of trials for selecting wheat lines involved the company setting up 800 trial plots in Eastern England on organic and conventionally managed fields from which we have selected 6 wheat lines to focus on. |
| Impact | None yet the project is still in early stages |
| Start Year | 2011 |
| Description | ASDA Pathfinder Farmers Group Field Visit- Invitation to meet and discuss soil management and soil biology at Thriplow Farms Cambridgeshire (David Walston) |
| 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 | Guest of the Asda Pathfinder Farmer's Group. 20th October 2016. Invitation to visit Thriplow Farms (David Walston) to discuss sustainable soil management in arable farming- including no-tillage, leys, organic matter earthworms and mycorrhiza. This invitation was a follow-up to their visit to Sheffield earlier in the year at which I gave a presentation on MycoRhizaSiol and SoilBioHedge projects, our work on cover-crops and mycorrhiza with Kelloggs. The farm visit was a great chance for direct knowledge exchange with farmers- both learning from them and their experiences with no-tillage arable farming and use of leys, as well as us being able to explain how some of their actions are enhancing soil quality by visual assessments and key indicators such as earthworms and soil crumb structure. Follow up to this includes requests for us to undertake some soil analyses to help confirm how no-tillage is improving soil functions, and contacts made on this day are providing farms which we will sample as part of SoilBioHedge landscape-scale studies. This meeting and engagement directly with farmers and land managers is part of our formal commitment to knowledge exchange from this project (integral to our pathways to impact) and the relationships and contacts we are building in the farming and agricultural advisory sector is vital for developing an effective pipeline for the knowledge transfer once our major research findings and applications such as user-tools are available. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Agrii national Conference on Soil biology and soil health |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited 50 minute presentation on "Using an understanding of soil biology and function to improve nutrient use efficiency and sustainability" in arable cropping and grasslands, followed by questions and answers. The audience included agricultural advisors and farmers. There was a very positive feedback from the participants- many questions and many messages of thanks after the presentation. I presented evidence of the improvements in soil quality ab=nd crop performance achieved by reintroduc |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Annual steering group meeting for SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizaSoil |
| 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 | SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizaSoil progress review presentations at Hazelwood Castle Tadcaster, together with coordinating visit to field experiments at Leeds University Farm. (Annual steering group meeting of the two White Rose consortium projects I lead). About 50 delegates including representatives from the Soil Security Programme, our industry partners and collaborators both on the farm and academic partners and allied PhD students. The field visit included demonstrations of gas-flux measurements as well as visual assessments of soil quality under newly sown leys versus conventional continuous cultivation fort 40 years, and soil quality variation from hedgerows into fields. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Attendance at NERC Soil Security Programme KE meeting London February 22 2017 |
| 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 | Participation in a full day KE workshop in London run by the Soil Security Programme to discuss pathways to impact from the research. The main outcome was the distribution of a useful infographic summarizing the significance of soil science for the delivery of the UN Development Goals- published in 2016. The main personal benefit from the meeting was increased awareness the the extent to which the devolved administrations of Wales and Scotland have better developed strategies for dealing with soil security and may have documentation and procedures that could for useful role-models in England, where soil health is generally a low priority politically and in policy terms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Biodiversity Agriculture Soil Environment (BASE UK) Webinar Regenerative agriculture- effects of leys in arable rotations on soil health. Invited talk by Jonathan Leake |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Jonathan Leake gave a 50 minute Powerpoint Presentation on Regenerative agriculture- effects of leys in arable rotations on soil health. This was followed by 30 minutes of questions. The audience were mainly farmers but included seed companies and agricultural advisors. The presentation showed key findings from the SoilBioHedge, MycorRhizaSoil and SARIC project "Restoring soil quality through reintegration of leys and sheep into arable rotations", and introduced the BBSRC Health Soil, Healthy Food Healthy People project in which effects of regenerative agriculture on soil quality and functions are being investigated. There was a lot of interest from the participants in the use of leys- and especially species-rich herbal leys, as well as interest in the combining of reintroducing leys into arable rotations with reducing tillage in subsequent cropping. There was a lot of positive feedback and thanks at the end of the meeting and messages sent afterwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://base-uk.co.uk/news-article.asp?id=117 |
| Description | Business In The Community Technical Workshop How to solve the sustainable food puzzle. Lecture on restoring soil health in arable farming and workshop on soil health metrics |
| 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 | Full day workshop considering different aspects of sustainable food production. My talk on restoring soil health in UK arable farming set the scene for a workshop focused on identifying key metrics for soil health. About 50 people attended the meeting, at least a third of these were interested in soil health. The meeting comprise a mixed group of participants from academia, industry ,agri-business, farmers, ADAS and the National Farmers Union etc. The meeting has been followed up by a second workshop at which a number of the participants in this workshop returned to the second, affirming their interest in our research and outreach activity and potential interest in collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Cereals 2016 Oral presentation and formal written report to Kelloggs Origins Cover Crop Farmer group |
| 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 | Oral presentation "Mycorrhizas in winter cover crops" and formal written report (with graphics and pictures) to Kelloggs Origins Cover Crop Farmer group at Cereals event 16 June in Cambridgeshire in collaboration with NIAB (Dr Ron Stobart) This was providing group and personalized feed-back to the participating farmers who had trialed different winter cover-crop systems in 2015-16, and from which I coordinated sampling of both the cover crop and follow-on crops for assessment of mycorrhiza. Whilst this work was not directly funded by SoilBioHedge several of the participating farmers in these trials have provided land for us to sample in SoilBioHedge and helped to identify other suitable farmers to include in our network of farms under different management. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Cereals Event: Poster presentation and soil monolith demonstration of effects of grass-clover leys on arable soil quality |
| 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 | We presented data evidence and blocks of soil from arable field and a 3 year grass-clover ley sown in the field to show how the ley regenerates soil qualities that are degraded by intensive cultivation and cropping, in a stand funded by the University of Sheffield Institute for Sustainable Food, over the two days of the show. We had significant interest from farmers and advisors attending the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Cereals Event: Talk presented in the Conservation Agriculture Theatre. "The role of leys in restorinfg soil quality in arable farming" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A talk that presented the key findings on the effects of grass-clover leys on soil quality and subsequent performance of direct-drilled wheat from the SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizaSoil projects. Attended by farmers, agricultural advisors and researchers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Channel 4 Food Unwrapped presentation on effects of conventional tillage and arable cropping on soil quality. With Jimmy Doherty |
| 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 | A full day of filming in 2018 culminated in a short appearance on Food Unwrapped Series 17 Episode 1, where we showed Jimmy the contrasting properties of soils in a deciduous woodland and an adjacent intensive cultivated arable field which was part of the SoilBioHedge experiment. The contrasting physical properties of the soils was shown to be partly linked to loss of organic matter- with the samples being analyzed for total organic carbon in our labs at the University of Sheffield, shown in the broadcast. Unfortunately we were unable to persuade the producer to let me show Jimmy the way the degraded soil in the field could be substantially restored by use of 3 year leys- the producer was only interested in the "bad news" part of the story which they were trying to pitch as "soil degradation is causing declines in food quality". I repeatedly told them that there was no clear evidence of such a link- and the broadcasted program does not mention effects of soil on food quality- which I regard as a triumph of science over media misrepresentation of evidence! |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.channel4.com/programmes/food-unwrapped/on-demand/67949-012 |
| Description | Co-author of a report to Defra Environmental Land Manangement team: Agricultural Land Management for Public Goods Delivery: iCASP Evidence Review on Soil Health. Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme (iCASP) Report. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Co-author of a report to Defra Environmental Land Manangement team: Chapman, P.J., Eze, S., de Bell, S., Barlow-Duncan, F., Firbank, L., Helgason, T., Holden, J., Leake, J.R, Kay, P., Brown, C.D., White, P.C.L., Little, R., Reed, M., Ziv, G. (2018) Agricultural Land Management for Public Goods Delivery: iCASP Evidence Review on Soil Health. Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme (iCASP) Report. iCASP is funded under NERC Grant: NE/P011160/1 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://icasp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2018/11/Public-Goods-Report-Final.pdf |
| Description | Contribution to and editiorial corrections of final version of a PostNote to UK Parliament on "Sustaining the soil microbiome". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The soil microbiome, communities of microorganisms in soils, underpin natural processes in soil habitats and are affected by environmental and land use change. This POSTnote gives an overview of the benefits provided by the soil microbiome, ways of assessing the soil microbiome, and measures to improve its condition. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/POST-PN-0601#fullreport |
| Description | Evidence provided to Dr Ruth Little meeting with Defra regarding soil health and public goods and services |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | My colleague Dr Ruth Little had a meeting with a Defra team developing the Environmental Land Management Scheme, at which she was asked to discuss evidence of win-win outcomes for farming and the environment and she took to this meeting evidence prepared by me from our studies in SoilBioHedge showing the multiple benefits to soil biology and functions including public goods provided by this as a result of reintroducing legume-rich leys into arable rotations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Evidence submitted to the UK Parliamentary Inquiry into soil health |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Two written submissions were made by Jonathan Leake as lead author, to the Parliamentary Inquiry into UK Soil health, on behalf of the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, at the University of Sheffield, and on behalf of the White Rose Sustainable Agriculture Consortium of the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York. Both submissions were published on the website of the inquiry and one of the submissions was referenced in the final report of the committee. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Farm 'walk and talk' to explore regenerative approaches to farming run by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society Farmer-Scientist Network |
| 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 | Over 30 people, mainly farmers, attended this event showcasing regenerative farming methods using clover-rich and herbal leys in the Vale of York, and I gave a 1 hour lunchtime overview of the policy context, environmental and economic benefits of reintroducing leys into arable farming systems, and the savings of fertilizer possible using legume-rich leys for soil health and fertility-building. I was invited to join the Farmer-Scientist Network of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society following my contribution to the Great Yorkshire Show Regenerative Agriculture tent, and subsequently applied and was appointed vice-chair of the Farmer-Scientist Network in 2023. I am part of the organizing group for the Great Yorkshire Show Farmer-Scientist Network marquee focused on agri-tech and regenerative agriculture in 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Final stakeholder and knowledge Transfer Meeting jointly for SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizaSoil projects, at Hazlewood Castle |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | This full day meeting attended by our industrial partner from RAGT Seeds, and representative from AHDB, Kings Seeds, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, commercial mycorrhiza inoculum producer (Plantworks), ADAS and local farmers provided an overview of the main research findings from the SoilBioHedge and MycorhizaSoil projects, including a field visit to see some of the experiments. I gave four talks, ending with a policy and practice-focussed synthesis of the findings of the research and which leads into the goals of our SARIC project comnparing grass-clover with species-rich herbal leys. There have been a number of follow-up invitations for me to to give similar presentations, which appear in some of the more recent entries. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | GWCT / LEAF/ NFU Technical Soils day for farmers and professional advisers 27th March 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | GWCT / LEAF/ NFU Technical Soils day for farmers and professional advisers - Cover Crops: The growing research into their management and impacts. The Allerton Project, Loddington, Leicestershire LE7 9XE 27th March 2017. invited talk: Mycorrhizal fungi - what can they deliver? My talk resulted in several requests for collaborative research and the feedback from the event indicated that the lecture on mycorrhiza had stimulated a lot of interest and was a subject that many farmers want to know more about. The National Farmer's Union featured the day and mention my presentation on their new website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.nfuonline.com/news/latest-news/blog-nfu-gwct-and-leaf-talk-cover-crops-at-soils/ |
| Description | Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative Global Webinar "Soil Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture' |
| 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 | Jonathan Leake was an invited speaker and panel member for a global webinar, for which there were 800 participants registered. The audience was global, and included farming practitioners, academics from various scientific disciplines, and policy makers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org/webinar-11-sustainable-ag |
| Description | Herbal leys in arable rotations: effects of leys on sheep, soil health, fertilizer use, weeds, crop yields, and the environment. |
| 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 led this one day workshop hosted at NIAB Innovation Farm by Co-Investigator Dr Lydia Smith, at which the main findings of the SARIC project "Restoring soil health by reintegration of leys and sheep into arable rotations" were presented. I gave the opening plenary talk, provided a short section on soil carbon sequestration, and the policy-and-practice overview at the end relating to potential opportunities for fertiklizer cosrt savings, soil quality gains and Environmental Land Management Scheme payments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/niabgroup/status/1615656352768004096 |
| Description | Indigro Academy Day for Farmers and Advisors - lecture/workshop on soil sustainability and soil health 30th November 2017 |
| 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 | The event was a training day for farmers and advisors with a focus on soil health and water pollution issues. My presentation sparked some discussion and questions and it was useful for knowledge exchange- both learning from constraints on farmers arising from weeds like blackgrass but also opportunities to manage soils more sustainably. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Integrated Farming 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 the lead speaker at the workshop with farmers, agricultural advisors and estate managers to discuss barriers and opportunities in the development of integrated farming systems including reintroducing livestock into arable rotations to improve agricultural sustainability. The meeting was funded by the UKRI seeding Award ISCF-TFP-SA-Sheffield. The work I presented drew mainly on the results from the SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizaSoil projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited Participation in the AHDB NIAB workshop on integrating livestock into arable systems |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Active participation in this workshop- sharing knowledge. Several new contacts sent follow up messages to me. I briefly outlined the goals of the recently funded BBSRC SARIC project I lead on Restoring soil quality through re-integration of leys and sheep into arable rotations, which builds on the work we have done in MycoRhizaSoil and SoilBioHedge projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited Seminar at The University of Durham: From stardust to sustainability: biological regeneration of soil health for food security and climate regulation. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited seminar in which Jonathan Leake showed how intensive arable farming can degrade soils but how these can be regenerated by recovery of key functional groups of organisms through reducing soil disturbance and increasing dynamic carbon flows into soil through use of evergreen leys in arable rotations. The presentation summarized some of the key findings of the SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizaSoil projects, and explained the priority research questions now being addressed in the SARIC project "Restoring soil quality through reintegration of leys and sheep into arable rotations", including the potential benefits of using complete multispecies legume-rich leys to boost soil fertility and organic carbon sequestration. The mainly undergraduate audience were highly engaged with the presentation and showed considerable interest as evidenced by the subsequent questions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited Seminar at The University of Nottingham. Rhizosphere Seminar Series. Evolution of plants and their mycorrhizospheres: from liverworts to forests, pedogenesis to global biogeochemical cycles |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presented a talk that summarized our work on plant and mycorrhiza in relation to mineral weathering and global biogeochemistry, concluding with considerations of soil security and the threats to global soils. Raised awareness of soil insecurity and the need for more sustainable soil management in agriculture to deliver better soil quality and soil security. The presentation opened opportunities to discuss the limited teaching of soil science in undergraduate degree programmes and potential opportunities for research collaborations with staff at the University of Nottingham |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Invited Speaker Soil and Water Management Centre Conference Harpur Adams University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at "Developing & Improving your Soils Conference" . I was invited by recommendation of the AHDB to talk on "Improving nutrient use efficiency". There was a audience of farmers, advisors and students of the University. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.soilandwater.org.uk/event-3474231 |
| Description | Invited Speaker at Kellogg's Origins Farmers Group Meeting, at Rothampstead Research November 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Formal report on the cover crop trials work that we have conducted in collaboration with Kelloggs Origins Group farmers, testing the extent of mycorrhization of single and mixed species cover-crops in winter, together with the effects of the cover crops on the mycorrhization in the follow-on spring crops. The talk "Cover crops, leys and rotations for building mycorrhiza and soil quality". also included key findings from the work we have been conducting on effects of leys on soil quality in the research projects MycoRhizaSoil and SoilBiohedge. Following this meeting a further meeting was arranged with Dr Ron Stobart of NIAB to continue our collaborations on these biological aspects of cover-cropping and crop rotations/ tillage interactions affecting soil quality. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Invited Talk: South Pennine Land Manager Network, Hebden Bridge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Under the auspices of iCASP (Yorkhsire Integrated Catchment Solutions), I was invited to give a presentation to the South Pennine Land Manager Network on "Soil carbon management in an age of climate emergency and changing agricultural policy and economics", which drew in part from our work on soil carbon sequestration by grass-clover leys reintroduced into arable rotations in SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizaSoil projects, but also reviewed evidence from a wider body of work published on upland soils, grasslands and effects of tree planting etc, in the context of the UK government plans regarding tree planting and the development of the Environmental Land Management Scheme based on payments for public goods. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited by Defra to speak on behalf of the Sustainable Soils Alliance, at the First International Plant Health Conference. Gave a talk entitled Healthy Soil for Healthy Crops: A Role for Regenerative Agriculture in Assembling Disease-Suppressive Soils |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Was an invited speaker and invited panel member for a session on soil health at the first International Conference on Plant Health, at Westminster, London, September 2022. The session was well attended with about 100 participants, and my presentation showed how leys introduced into arable rotations build disease-suppressive soils, based on the findings of the MycoRhizaSoil and follow-up work from the SoilBioHedge project with a Sheffield-based PhD student Nancy Muringai. This generated considerable interest in the audience, and I played a leading role in the panel discussion part of the session as a result of the audience interest in the issues raised and the findings we reported. There was strong engagement and interest from farmers and also from members of Defra. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited guest speaker at Frontier Agriculture and Kings Seeds Annual technical 2 day conference "The role of mycorrhizal fungi in the soil" Nottingham, November 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited plenary lecture to provide up to date technical advice and scientific evidence of the effects of mycorrhizas on crops, and how this is influenced by tillage, land management and crop rotations. The presentation drew on our results from MycoRhizaSoil and SoilBioHedge projects both in terms of effects of leys on mycorrhizal activities, soil quality and on subsequent crop yields, and the role of mycorrhizal inoculum in suppressing shoot pathogens. Our research into mycorrhizas in crops and expertise i this is featured in the 2018 Kings Seeds Technical manual (https://issuu.com/frontieragriculture/docs/kings_catalogue_2018) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://issuu.com/frontieragriculture/docs/kings_catalogue_2018 |
| Description | Invited lecture to Kings Frontier Agriculture Team Meeting, Lincoln and co-development of R & D opportunities 7th November 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presented results from our recent research on leys and cover crops to a team meeting of Kings Seeds and Frontier Agriculture and to discussions on developing some joint research activities. Subsequent to the meeting I have been invited to speak later this year at the national; meeting of Frontier Agriculture and they have agreed to be a project partner on a BBSRC SARIC research application (currently in review), . |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited opening plenary at the Knowledge Transfer Network organized Managing & Improving Soil Health Workshop, Sheffield March 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Lecture entitled: Priorities for restoring soil health in arable farming. This showcased the work we are doing in SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizaSoil projects under the auspices of the NERC/ BBSRC Soil Security Programme and SARISA and how our work is informing management decisions for sustainable soil management- particularly through the use of leys, minimizing tillage and rebuilding earthworm and mycorrhizal functioning to restore soil structure and functions in arable land. The presentation highlighted the global and UK threats to soil health and some of the ways different management could be applied to reduce these threats and increase resilience. The audience comprised farmers, advisors Agrii, ADAS, and centrally funded organizations (Environment Agency, CEH) as well as small and medium sized agri-business. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited poster presentations and workshop particpation Grass Herbal Leys Farm Network |
| 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 | Invited poster presentation and participation in the AHDB funded Grass Herbal Leys Farm Network. We presented evidence of the key changes in soil health brought about by leys and showcased the ongoing studies we are conducting comparing grass-clover and herbal leys under grazing and mowing. We visited the field demonstration and assisted with interpreting the changes in soil biology and functions under rotations that have now included leys- including how this impacts earthworm populations and activities leading to improved soil structure. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited talk: Sermon at St Timothy's Church Crookes, Hope For Creation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The invited talk explained the theological basis for sustainable soil and environmental management and ethics of human environment interactions. It drew on some of the work we have conducted on soil quality and its biological recovery under reduced intensity management such as reintroducing leys into arable rotations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.sttims.org.uk/sermons/2019-09-22/?player=audio |
| Description | Leeds University Farm User Group Meeting 2nd August 2016 |
| 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 | Leeds University Farm User Group Meeting, Hazelwood Castle, 2nd August 2016. Presentation on Current and future plans with MycoRhizaSoil and SoilBioHedge. Building dialogue with the contractors and sub-contractors at Leeds University Farm, the management team and scoping future research plans and follow-up research after the current funding ends. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Meeting with Dr Jon Martlew Fiscal and Strategy Advisor Strategy & Improvement Unit Defa. 31st Jan 2018. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Dr Jon Martlew of Defra requested a meeting to see our SoilBioHedge project in the field, having been advised by a National Farmers Union regional officer of the significance of the work in relation to farming policy and alignment with the goals set out in the recently published 25 year environment plan. I met with Jon at Lees University Farm, adjacent to our experiments , and gave him an illustrated talk showing him key results arising from the effects of our leys on soil properties and we then walked out onto one of the ley strips and dug soil to compare to the adjacent arable field. The visible results were compelling- with large numbers of pink earthworms and a lovely crumb structure in the ley and the adjacent arable soil was very compacted and supported a few greenish coloured small earthworms and lacked the same rooting density of they ley. After the meeting Dr Martlew contacted me to request using one of the slides from my presentation in internal defra meetings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Meetings with the Crown Estate |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Crown Estate Away Day. Invited talk: Challenges to assessing and maintaining soil health in the context of short-term tenancies. 12th October 2016. Halifax Hall Sheffield. This presentation was followed up by the Crown Estate with further meetings to discuss research needs with respect to assessing and maintaining soil health in the context of short-term tenancies, and a series of follow-up activities have taken place. The invited talk integrated the early results from MycoRhizaSoil and SoilBioHedge research projects and the associated work with Kelloggs on cover-cropping and mycorrhizas to consider how crop rotations and soil management such as different intensities of tillage can impact soil quality and its legacy effects in the context of short-term tenancies, and the problems of loss of soil organic matter from arable soils under continuous cultivation, again demonstrated by our research. These findings and our work developing measures of soil quality such as bioassays and hedge-to-field soil quality benchmarking are of interest to the Crown Estate in the context on maintaining long-term capital values of the estate. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
| Description | MycoRhizaSoil: Incorporation of ley rotations has the potential to reverse arable soil degradation (Poster presentation by Dr Steffi Tille) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation at annual Soil Security Programme meeting with researchers and stakeholders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | N8 Agri Food Farm Open Day talk and demonstration- Soil quality improvement by grass-clover leys (Leeds University Farm). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I gave one of the main talks at the event and also ran a demonstration of soil quality comparisons between permanent arable, 3 year grass-clover ley and hedgerow soils in the same field to a group of local farmers and other participants in the open day event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | On-farm Meeting NIAB Duxford: Restoring soil quality through reintegration of leys and sheep into arable rotations. Opening Powerpoint Presentation and field experiment visit at this farmer and stakeholder meeting. |
| 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 | We held a project reporting meeting in a marquee at the side of one of the field experiments in which we have tested effects of different ley types on soil quality and subsequent wheat crop performance on returning to cropping by direct drilling or ploughing. My opening presentation provided a synthesis of work conducted in our previous UKRI funded research on effects of leys in arable rotations, as well as new findings from the BBSRC funded SARIC project that specifically has compared herbal leys with grass-clover leys with mowing or grazing for 2-3 years before returning to arable cropping. About 50- people attended the event in addition to the research team members- and we presented posters and talks on the key findings from the research, as well as a tour of the field to see the wheat growth in the different treatments (2 ley types, grazed versus mown, 2 years ley or 3 years of ley, direct drilled or ploughed and harrowed for 1 or 2 years in succession post 3 year or 2 year ley. The wheat post-ley was grown with half the normal N fertilizer and P fertilizer rates, These were compared to long-term arable control area of the same field, with the wheat established by plough and harrowing, and either full or half rate fertilizer application). The key findings of the study of particular interest to farmers were the major savings in N fertilizer that were achieved by the leys, and the yield penalties of direct drilling in the first year post-ley were partly compensated by improved yields of wheat direct drilled for a second year. The BBSRC management team that attended requested a copy of my presentation, which set out the economic, environmental and policy context to the research as well as the key findings of relevance to farmers, research councils, and policymakers. We had a lot of questions and interest from the farmers attending the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation and poster / table stand at Farming For the Future - Novel Crops and Fresh Thinking. AgriTech East Hosted Meeting, in Colchester, February 2023. |
| 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 | Gave a presentation on Regenerative farming with herbal leys in arable rotations, and novel legume crops for UK arable farming. Presented a poster based on the SARIC project "Restoring soil quality through reintegration of leys and sheep into arable rotations". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/Agri_Tech_E/status/1628773948295901184 |
| Description | Presentation at Cereals 2015, Lincolnshire |
| 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 | Cereals Event. Informal presentation to Kellogg's Origins farmer group of outline plans and scope for a collaborative project on effects of mycorrhiza-compatible and non-mycorrhizal winter cover crops on spring-sown crops in collaboration with NIAB. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Presentation to Agricure 30th November 2016, Sheffield. Invited speaker: Rebuilding the foundations of agriculture: soil health. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to Agricure visiting the University of Sheffield to explore opportunities for collaboration. I gave a talk entitled: Rebuilding the foundations of agriculture: soil health. This focused on the ongoing research in SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizaSoil to address ways of achieving sustainable improvements to soil quality in UK arable farming practice by crop genotype selection, sympathetic management that promotes beneficial microorganisms such as mycorrhiza and the use of grass-clover leys to boost soil structure, fertility and build mycorrhiza inoculum in situ. Although there are no immediate workstreams following from this Knowledge Transfer activity, we anticipate potential future collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation to representatives of Agrii: Underground networks of power and influence: Managing the potential benefits of mycorrhiza for soil and crop health. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A series of presentations to different Agrii consultants and board members resulting from an initial visit of a delegation from Agrii to the University of Sheffield on 15th March 2016 at which research relevant to their agribusiness was presented including a talk which i gave: Underground networks of power and influence: Managing the potential benefits of mycorrhiza for soil and crop health. A second group came to hear our presentations again on 26th April, and Agrii board members came again in June at which I gave an updated version of the presentation for the third time. Our interactions with Agrii have led to collaborations in soil quality and soil health assessments,. using tools we are developing in SiiolBioHedge and MycorrhizaSoil. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Provided expert advice as science review panel member to a formal report to Defra from the Sustainable Soils Alliance with respect to national soil health assessment and monitoring |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Provided expert advice as science review panel member to a formal report to Defra from the Sustainable Soils Alliance with respect to national soil health assessment and monitoring. It is too early to evaluate the outcome of this activity. The Sustainable Soils Alliance is hosting another meeting at parliament in March 2019 where there will be further lobbying to try to ensure that soil is given a higher priority in the implementation of national monitoring to meet the targets of the 25 year environment plan. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Regenerative Agriculture marquee at the Great Yorkshire Show July 2022 . Showcasing the effect of leys in arable rotations- including SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizaSoil project findings-over all 4 days of the show. Stand funded by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society |
| 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 | Presented posters, gave talks, and had soil profile slices from SoilBioHedge to illustrate soil quality improvement by 3 year grass-clover leys introduced into arable rotations by the SoilBiohedge project, the MycoRhizaSoil Project and the BBSRC "Restoring soil quality by reintroduction of leys into arable rotations". All the publications arising from the projects were printed and displayed and used to explain the key findings of the effects of leys on recovery of earthworm populations, and the effects of the leys on soil structure, carbon sequestration and soil hydrological functioning. Spend 4 days on the stand meeting farmers, agronomists, local and regional counselors, and explaining our key findings. Over 100 people visited the stand including some school groups. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Regenerative farming with diversified rotations using herbal leys and legume cropping- 2 day Workshop hosted by the University of Sheffield, funded by UKRI BBSRC Seeding Awards for novel crops for UK arable farming |
| 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 | The two day meeting aimed at knowledge exchange and building new collaborations with UK farmers involved in arable cropping and mixed farming who are interested in growing leys and novel legume crops. At the meeting farmers explained their experiences with growing legumes including soya (with limited success) and showed interest in some of the other legume crops that are starting to be grown for human consumption in the UK. The research teams at Sheffield showcased our work on novel arable rotations with herbal leys and no-till cropping, and the potential benefits of reduced stomatal density in soya to improve drought resistance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Sainsbury's Scholarships 2015, Soil Health Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Sainsbury's Scholarships 2015, Soil Health Workshop, Pocklington, York. Invited guest speaker "Underground networks of power and influence: The potential benefits of mycorrhiza for soil and crop health". Presentation to farmers, industry and agricultural sector professionals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Scientific Advisor to the Sustainable Soils Alliance providing expert reviewing of policy documents |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Provided technical advice, data evidence and editing of documents as a member of the scientific steering group for the Sustainable Soils Alliance, and attended the parliamentary launch of the SSA at the Houses of Parliament. This group has substantially increased the importance of soils in national policy and the information developed by the alliance may have helped influence the policy direction of the 25 year environment plan. Certainly the Minister, Michael Gove, who attended the meeting has shown a strong commitment to soil protection and we have subsequently provided information to him on the potential advantages of subsidizing farmers to include leys in rotations via our project partner Dr Alastair Leake who met with Mr Gove. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Soil Biology and Soil Health Technical Workshop Research and Knowledge Exchange NIAB innovation Farm 31st October 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Provided a short lecture on soil health in this workshop attended by about 50 professionals, and participated in discussion s on soil health metrics. Provided follow-up ideas to the organizer and have been engaged subsequently in a consultative exercise in relation to integrating soil measurements on farms with farm payments post Brexit for the development of soil monitoring policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Soil Security Programme Annual Meeting - Invited plenary lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited Keynote Speaker: Soil Security Annual Meeting, Reading, 6th September. Restoring Paradise Lost: Sustainable soil management for sustainable crop production. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Soil Security Programme Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition stand "Soil: Our Buried Treasure" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Soil Security stand had some hands-on demonstrations and I engaged members of the public in discussions on the importance of soil and how it functions- drawing directly on examples from our recent agricultural systems research. I Attended 3 half days and an evening Soiree for fellows of the Royal Society and distinguished guests and members of the press. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Soil Security Programme Soil Health Workshop 13-14 April 2016 University of Reading |
| 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 | Participation in this workshop - played a role in identifying and prioritizing the key indicators of soil health. For me the main outcome of the workshop was increased motivation to feed directly into the Government Inquiry into Soil Health as the research we have been doing has clarified for me the key priorities and problems that need to be addressed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Soil and water 2018 Celebrating 25 years of research into soils, water and the environment GWCT Soils Day 14 Feb |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited participant at the GWCT Soils Day celebrating 25 years of research at the Allerton Project (a project partner on SoilBioHedge). I ran an in-field demonstration of soil quality variation in relation to arable soil management and contrasted the soil properties under hedges and small copses with the long-term cultivated soils. I was an invited member of the expert panel for the formal question and answer session at the end of the two day meeting. Many of the participants were struck by the soil quality under hedges and our approach developed in SoilBioHedge to use hedgerow soils as soil quality benchmarks within fields to compare effects of arable farming on different soil types between fields. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.nfuonline.com/cross-sector/environment/soil/blog-gwcts-25-year-celebration-of-research-i... |
| Description | Soil health stand at the Great Yorkshire Show |
| 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 | Great Yorkshire Show on 11-13 July 2017. We had a stand to showcase our research and give and hands-on soil outreach activities. Our research project SoilBioHedge: Harnessing hedgerow biodiversity using leys to restore arable soil quality and increase resilience to climatic extremes had a large poster banner and leaflets summarizing the project were distributed. A bioassay with wheat grown in soil from hedgerows out into fields and in leys was used to demonstrate soil quality improvement by leys compared to the soil quality loss by arable cropping, using soil from our complementary research project MycoRhizaSoil. We have been invited by the Great Yorkshire Show to run a similar stand this year due to its popularity and interest generated. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Soil influences the extent of mycorrhiza colonization and diversity in wheat roots. Poster presentation by Dr Steffi Tille |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation at Soil Security annual meeting for researchers and stakeholders |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Soil science at The Great Yorkshire Show, Harrogate 10th - 12th July 2018. |
| 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 | Researchers from the SoilBioHedge and MycoRhizasSoil project presented research outcomes at the Great Yorkshire show by organizing and presenting a research stand. The stand was part of the NFU's meet the farmer exhibition which aimed to showcase the science behind production of some of the UK's most important crops alongside recent agricultural research. Research findings from the SoilBioHedge Project were presented to the general public using a combination of large banners, leaflets and postcard sized handouts. A number of display items were also presented including blocks of soil excavated from the field showing differences in arable and ley soils, a wormery to demonstrate importance of earthworms for influencing soil structure and mixing soils and large rhizotrons which allowed the structural differences of a range of plant root systems (including grass and clover) to be visualised. Microscopes with slides showing a range of soil biodiversity (including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, clover root nodules and earthworms) were setup to allow the public to explore the range of soil microbiota important for influencing soil health. Over 130,000 people attended the show over the 3 days the event was held, and the stand attracted interest from farmers, agricultural advisers and the general public- an estimated over 80-100 people directly engaged with our stand. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Sustainable Soils Alliance guidance to Defra on soil structure target |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | As one of the panel of scientific advisors to the Sustainable Soils Alliance, I helped to edit and guide the development of a policy document submitted to Defra outlining the arguments for a soil structure monitoring target in England as part of the Environmental Land Management Scheme payment for public goods and the importance of linking soil structure and soil organic carbon assessments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58cff61c414fb598d9e947ca/t/601937623b83b724e29e1492/161226531... |
| Description | The Wildlife Trusts- Invited speaker- Future Farming webinar. The Importance of Healthy Soils |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Gave an invited plenary webinar lecture to staff from the Wildlife Trusts on "The importance of healthy soils". The talk showed how intensive arable cultivation and annual cropping has degraded soil organic matter, soil structural stability and hydrological functioning and depleted key functional groups of soil organisms. From our research on leys reintroduced into arable rotations (SoilBioHedge, MycoRhizaSoil and SARIC grants)- showed how these leys can regenerate soil health - and the biological mechanisms by which this regeneration occurs. We also presented the evidence that soil health can be monitored effectively by measurement of the organic carbon amounts in water-stable macroaggregates >2 mm compared to the organic matter content of the whole soil. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | UK Agriculture Resilience Workshop. Scunthorpe 13 Feb 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A follow on meeting from the Business in the Community workshop in October 2017 involving a 1 day workshop focused around issues of soil sustainability and training of farmers and students of agriculture. I gave the plenary lecture at the start of the day and made contributions to the workshop. A report has been prepared summarizing the key priority themes that have emerged from our discussions and further meetings are being planned to start to draw up funding bids involving research co-designed with stakeholders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | University of Sheffield-DEFRA Environmental Land Management Evidence & Research Mapping for Policy Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A one day workshop event with representatives from Defra Land Management teams, Natural England and Forest Research providing an up to date overview of our key research findings relevant to the development of new farm payment systems for the delivery of environmental goods and services. I gave a presentation on Soil Practice & Outcomes: Soil Quality and was a contributor to research review presented by Prof Chapman on Agricultural Land Management for Public Goods Delivery: iCASP Evidence Review on Soil Health. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Waitrose Science Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on SoilBioHedge project and soil security in a UK arable farming context for professional growers and those involved in the Waitrose food supply chain. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | West Cambridgeshire 100's Farm Cluster Soil training: Biological regeneration of soil health for food security and climate regulation. |
| 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 | This was a soil analysis and soil management training day for Farmers in the West Cambridgeshire Farm Cluster- the event was hosted on a farm and was organized by Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group East (FWAG East). The event started with an illustrated talk from Jonathan Leake on soil management practices on arable land that regenerate soil health for food security and climate regulation, showing findings from the SoilBioHedge, MycoRhizaSoil and SARIC "Restoring soil quality through reintegration of leys and sheep into arable rotations" projects, and setting out the soil sampling goals of the BBSRC H3 "Healthy Soil Healthy Food Health People" project with which the farmers are collaborating i trials of regenerative agriculture. After the presentation, Jonathan Leake led in-field soil sampling and observations, and demonstrated aggregate-stability testing, on soils in adjacent fields under contrasting management history. . |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | White Rose Brussels meeting Rethinking sustainable food systems. Tuesday 20th June 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk presented in Brussels run by the White Rose Universities to showcase our interests in sustainable food production systems. The meeting was addressed by the EU Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Phil Hogan, with a mixed audience of policymakers, practitioners, rural land use organizations and members of the public. I presented a talk on 'Soil degradation by intensive UK agriculture and how to reverse it' and there was some follow-up interest from participants at the meeting, including requests to use some of the illustrations / slides in my talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Written Submission to AHDB Soil Biology and Soil Health Partnership workshop, 2nd March 2018. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Contributed a written submission to the policy development led by AHDB in relation to soil testing of farmland and soil quality monitoring in relation to the aspirational goals of the UK government 25 year environment plan. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Written submission from the Sustainable Soils Alliance to Defra consultation on headline indicators for meeting the goals of the 25 year Environment Plan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | I contributed (as a scientific advisor to the Sustainable Soils Alliance) to the submission made to Defra in advance of their publishing the draft plans for Headline Indicators to be used to monitor progress and meeting goals of the UK government 25 year Environment Plan, making the case for including sioil health in the indicators: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58cff61c414fb598d9e947ca/t/5ca36476a4222f9042035c14/1554211960015/SSA-DEFRA+Soils+Workshop+Recommendations_Nov+18.pdf Defra appeared to ignore our recommendations when they published their draft proposals in 2019. I helped draft the submission from the Sustainable Soils Alliance, to the Defra public consultation on their proposals. We (the Science Panel of the Sustainable Soils Alliance) restated the need to include 'Healthy Soils' as a Headline Indicator in the government's draft 25 Year Plan for the Environment, alongside three underlying 'Condition of Assets' indicators. The text of our submissions are mounted and openly available on the Website of the sustainable Soils Alliance. Defra substantially altered their text in the final (post consultation revised) document on indicators to be used to develop the 25 Year Environment plan- with Soil Heath being raised in status to Headline Indicator 8, and no longer linked exclusively to land productivity and private goods, but is now correctly recognized as a "National Asset". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58cff61c414fb598d9e947ca/t/5ca362828165f5ff06964ad5/155421146... |
| Description | Written submission to Defra consultation on headline indicators for meeting the goals of the 25 year Environment Plan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | My formal written submission to Defra (one of 100 submissions to them) highlighted the inconsistency in the proposal to only consider soil as private goods, and the lack of adequate commitment to soil health and soil monitoring in the proposed headline indicators to be used to deliver the 25 year Environment Plan. Soil Health was not proposed as a headline indicator. I argued strongly for giving a higher and correct priority to soils, and their contributions to public goods and services. The outline framework proposed was inconsistent with the goal for all of England's soils to be sustainably managed by 2030. Without the development of soil health indicators and monitoring there was no effective policy developed to (a) assess the current status of soils and (b) monitor changes in soil quality over time- and the stated goals were unachievable and unverifiable. Defra substantially altered their text In the final (post consultation revised) document on indicators to be used to develop the 25 Year Environment plan- with Soil Heath being raised in status to Headline Indicator 8, and no longer linked exclusively to land productivity and private goods, but is now correctly recognized as a "National Asset". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/8020... |
| Description | iCASP Confluence Conference Where Next for Yorkshire's Soils? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Live webinar presentation and questions and answers at iCASP Confluence meeting, involving a range of farming / agricultural and catchment focussed agencies, water companies, Natural England and Environment Agency representatives. Presented key issues facing Yorkshire soils and their sustainable management, building on the SoilBioHedge project research findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://icasp.org.uk/resources-and-publications/confluence-resources/confluence-2020-resources/ |