Delivering a decision-support framework - soilquality.org.uk

This project aims to design, develop and implement an innovative web-based decision support platform (soilquality.org.uk) for improved soil management in UK arable and lowland grassland systems. Using levy funding, farmers' demand for tools to manage soil health has been met in Australia through soilquality.org.au. The soilquality.org.au platform, which provides the ability to compare individual test results within a robust decision-support framework, is unique and highly valued by farmers' organisations. Working with collaborators in Australia, we will update, extend, and adapt to UK conditions, the established soil quality monitoring framework - soilquality.org.au. By extending the existing framework using the capabilities of mobile devices, this project will incorporate data from sensed and manually captured indicators, including in the field, to provide timely support and give a farmer-focused analysis of soil conditions.
Our new UK decision support platform (soilquality.org.uk) will integrate interpretation of existing measured soil quality indicators (largely chemical with some physical and biological) together with information on management strategies that can be used to address any identified constraints to production. To develop the platform for the UK we will bring together farmers, consultants, and scientists, within a partnership to support development and delivery of a web-based decision platform that meets the needs of farmers, farming organisations, and policy-makers allowing all stakeholders to take site-specific soil quality issues into account when planning and managing resilient and sustainable crop and grassland production for the long term. The project team is built on strong existing collaborative relationships which have developed and applied soil science within the agricultural industry for over 15 years; an integrated approach will link the strengths of the project team at Newcastle University, SRUC and in the applied research/consultancy (GWCT, ADAS, BGS), with the farming and advisory sectors.
Poor soil management in the UK costs farmers money as a result of lost production and also leads to negative environmental impacts adoption of the soilquality.org.uk framework is expected to significantly reduce these costs. The transformation in approaches to soil management enabled through use of the innovative web-based platform (soilquality.org.uk) will support sustainable productive arable and lowland grassland systems in the UK.

There are a number of beneficiary groups linked to this project; these are listed below together with a description of the benefit that will be gained

Agricultural industry
- Providing improved evidence to underpin recommendation for adoption and local adaptation of more effective soil management
- Supporting targeted reductions in agricultural inputs (fertilisers, pesticides) by enabling improved understanding and management of soil function supporting crop growth
- Providing a basic toolkit (with clear description of approaches to sampling and analysis with tools for site-specific interpretation) that can be used to screen proposed management practices in terms of impact on soil function

Academia
- New knowledge through the integration of current understanding of the links between soil properties and the ecosystem functions which soils support.
- Developing interdisciplinary expertise by providing integrated methodological approaches for the communication of soil quality information in ways that support decision-support effectively. which may be applied to other industry sectors
- Development of skills portfolio of postdoctoral researchers and research investigators through interdisciplinary approaches that stretch individuals' understanding and skills base
- Enhanced fundamental understanding of links between soil quality and function together with opportunities for agricultural innovation across a range of climates and conditions by working with Australian partners

Public sector - support for evidence based policy-making
- Providing improved evidence to underpin evaluation of impacts of farming practice on soil quality and function within agri-environment schemes
- Providing a toolkit (sampling, analysis, interpretation) that can be used to screen agri-innovations in terms of impact on soil function