Sustainable Agriculture

ADAS has the largest group of crop physiologists in the UK The ADAS crop physiology team focuses on improving performance and sustainability of cropping systems for food, feed and biofuel production.

Introduction   Climate change will significantly impact agriculture, forestry and the food industry, and the impact will change over time. The change in local and global climate conditions will impact the life cycle process of the agriculture and food industry, including the quality of seeds, growing seasons, crop maturity, livestock productivity, forest productivity, etc. The most critical impacts are the increased CO2 emissions due to growth in agricultural activities, the changing rainfall patterns, increased evaporative demand, reduced water availability for irrigation threatening all agricultural production, extended or repeated periods of drought, tree deaths, increased flooding, including that caused by sea-level rise, substantial losses in crop production in low-lying agricultural areas, soil compaction, waterlogging and soil erosion, and pests and diseases threatening the production.    Climate change will affect the range and quality of the ecosystem services that agriculture and forestry provide and rely on. They provide climate control, flood regulation, biodiversity, pollination and nutrient cycling. These sectors play a critical role in adapting to the change by introducing new healthy and resilient genotypes, varieties, breeds and management practices.    As the impact of climate change continues to be severe, there is a need for more anticipatory adaptation measures. Agriculture and forestry are components of larger biophysical, social and economic systems, reacting and adapting to climate change in different ways, resulting in complex global changes whose impacts at the local level are not easy to predict.   Conversely, the demand for agriculture and the food industry is growing, including to achieve the ‘No Hunger’ SDG 2 target, universal access to safe and nutritious food, end all forms of malnutrition, double the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, sustainable food production and resilient agricultural practices, maintain the genetic diversity in food production, invest in rural infrastructure, agricultural research, technology and gene banks, preventing agricultural trade restrictions, market distortions and export subsidies, and ensuring stable food commodity markets and timely access to information.   Thus, achieving food and nutritional security by increasing crop productivity while limiting carbon emissions is of utmost priority for every nation. This includes strengthening sustainable agri-food value chains, scaling up agri-food systems resilience, improving food security, and generating employment. While doing this, we must increase innovative practices and the creative and entrepreneurial skills of farmers worldwide to do their jobs and businesses effectively, foresee future scenarios and be prepared and resilient to climate and economic shocks.   This highlights an urgent need to identify an eco-friendly/cleaner consumption and production system that is more productive, profitable, resource-efficient (i.e. efficient use of energy, water, and carbon-based inputs), environmentally safer, balanced gender, accessible and inclusive of everyone, and resilient. Communities Carbon Calculator (CCC) Pilot Our proposal, Communities Carbon Calculator, is about designing eco-friendly and carbon-cum energy efficient, resilient and sustainable production and consumption systems for the diverse agroecosystems worldwide.   The primary concept is to have meaningful, interrelated, inter-sectoral collaborative four (4) Carbon Interventions: Carbon budgeting includes carbon reduction, using embodied carbon and reducing carbon waste for positive impact. Carbon mobilisation includes understanding the carbon dynamics throughout the processes, practices and products and applying technologies (natural, bio, chemical, mechanical, etc.) and fixing it for positive impact. Carbon literacy includes increasing the understanding and knowledge of the use of technologies (digital), theories and practices for a sustainable and resilient low-carbon sector. Carbon Sustainability includes developing local and global ecosystems for sustainable and resilient sectors.   CCC Pilot will focus on 1 region and four countries in this Pilot. However, we are open to more countries or regions joining the Pilot. We have started collecting interest from the global community, and if we get 20 stakeholders from a country, it will be included in the pilot.   For now, we have committed interest from: Region: The Congo Basin Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ouganda, Kenya, Ghana, Pakistan, Nigeria, Zambia, and Mongolia   The Global Sustainable Futures Progress through Partnerships Network calls partners/collaborators/individuals to join the optimised integrated COMMUNITIES CALCULATOR CARBON (CCC) Pilot. For Africa, our foremost partner is Actions for the Development of Africa - ADA, led by Bernard K. Mulenda. He is closely working with Professor Dr Mylor Ngoie on the interventions from the Universities over the region.   Country Carbon Calculator (CCC) Pilot will drive total transformation in systems at the country level. It will impact many other interrelated sectors, such as agriculture, water, waste, transport, energy, health, etc., developing in-country projects and integrating strategies for technology, subject expertise, innovation and commercialisation, including: Identifying and connecting with relevant stakeholders physically, socially and virtually, both at local, national and regional levels Advocating, encouraging, and negotiating with stakeholders to get involved in the program for managing carbon emission, business and innovative commodities, adopting an integrated approach and multi-area agreements Creating local, national and regional forums to attract all stakeholders (start-ups, technicians, experts) associated with business Facilitating carbon calculator development in-country, partnering with subject matter experts, academia, and technology experts The Carbon Calculator will be an online tool enabling every business manager detailing and supply chain actors to calculate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon storage into soil and biomass on the land area they are footprinting. It will account for all types of agriculture, food production and land use, producing a carbon balance detailing emissions into Scopes 1,2,3 emissions and carbon storage. A noticeable difference will be reflected in the quality of services, commercialisation, certification, carbon credits, crop diversity and inclusion of farmers, women and youth A scalable and innovative approach to connecting the countries as low-carbon, resilient and sustainable environmental, agriculture and food suppliers, health, manufacturing, etc. Seven WorkPlans WP1: To map the current resources in your country to create a farm carbon calculator WP2: To build a working model for piloting the carbon calculator WP3: To evaluate the CCC Pilot quarterly for its delivery of services/products/processes WP4: To measure the changes in the sector due to the innovative practices developed through CCC Pilot WP5: To measure the changes in related sectors such as agriculture, water, energy, transport, health nutrition, soil quality, housing, etc. through CCC Pilot WP6: To develop the learning/skill development/innovative practices knowledge exchange gathered through CCC Pilot WP7: To work with the stakeholders to improve decision-making for a resilient and sustainable industry   Please complete this form to express your interest: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpkme0WNS-th6QGNcTTJ6d9vMZa2myFBixszOD4YYDLRq9Mg/viewform?usp=share_link Contact Dr Renuka Thakore, Founder and CEO, Global Sustainable Futures Network CIC, UK ceo@gsfn.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/rbthakore/  

Together, we’re creating plausible pathways, and practical, open science, to achieve Net Zero through the Agrifood system by 2050.

Strategic BBSRC & NERC programme with CEH & Rothamsted  - Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems,

Join renowned UK farmers, tech developers, and agri-tech sector representatives for a day of on-farm discussions, networking, and demonstrations at the innovative Shimpling Park Farm in Suffolk for Agri-EPI's Annual Conference 2022 on 27th October.

Land of Plenty is WWF's blueprint for how the agriculture and land use sectors in the UK can help fight climate change and bring nature back to life.

As a thought-piece for Science for Sustainable Agriculture, science communicator Dr Julian Little examines two contrasting approaches taken by leading food businesses to promote more sustainable agriculture and food production – the apparently “unscalable” regenerative agriculture, and sustainable intensification. Which approach is most likely to deliver the necessary increases in global food production while at the same time reducing agriculture’s footprint, delivering net zero and leaving room for nature? And are they in conflict?

Anglian Water were involved with UK agricultural colleges, CSF, EA and Natural England to run the Great Farm Challenge. This involved interactive workshops and a farm visit with each college. Each college then wrote up a report about their learnings and the students who performed the best were invited to a GFC Final Day to present thier findings. Winners recieved vouchers and a farming press subcription. GFC hasnt run for the last year- is this something the industry would like to bring back?

In the UK an estimated 3.3 million tonnes of food are wasted before making it off farm. Farmers face numerous barriers to accurately tracking and reducing on-farm food waste. In response to this hidden issue, WWF and Tesco have worked with members of the food system, including farmers, suppliers, retailers and NGOs to develop the Hidden Waste Roadmap. This report sets out actions for food system actors between 2022 – 2026 to support farmers in measuring, reporting and reducing food waste on farms. 

Scientific Paper by David Rose et al. in Land Use Policy 2021.

This book examines, discusses and shares over 30 years’ worth of research from the Allerton Project, a research and demonstration farm in the UK which has been carrying out applied interdisciplinary research to explore and explain the need to adapt the management of farmland for environmental protection and to provide public benefits.

Environment Digest is a quarterly publication that provides a synopsis of recent news, reports and other materials that are of interest to the farming community. With a particular focus on how agriculture links with the environment, each issue focusses on articles across sustainable food production, climate change, water and waste management, soils and biodiversity. Environment Digest principally focuses on stories and policy changes that are relevant to England and/or the UK with a slant towards the arable sector.

Pathways to Sustainability - Scaling the Transition of Global Agriculture

We are establishing a network of farms to share knowledge and data on the application and impact of IPM strategies with the aim to better understand the effectiveness of IPM approaches on farm yield and profitability, and support sustainable, productive systems with no pesticide inputs wasted. We’ve had some initial funding from Defra to design the network, and now we are moving into a pilot phase.   

Balancing food production and ecosystem function.

Transition Live will build upon the initiative from Farmers Weekly aimed at securing a sustainable future for your farm business.

The third edition of the CropLife International Festival of Stewardship will, for the first time, be open to everyone.

Join Biomass Connect and Rothamsted Research at our North Wyke Demonstrator Hub in Devon for an enlightening afternoon focused on the practical aspects of selecting, cultivating, integrating, and utilising a diverse array of biomass crops for fuel, animal health, and soil health on your farm.