There is a lot of interest in soil carbon currently, due to the opportunity to store and sequester carbon in soil. It is also vital for soil health, forming part of soil organic matter.
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In 2015, the UK pledged to be Net Zero by 2050, with the NFU striving for the more ambitious target of 2040. Net Zero is achieved when the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted is balanced with those removed from the atmosphere. This helps to combat climate change and reduce global warming.
Opportunities are increasing for farmers and land managers to earn revenues from storing carbon in soils or vegetation, or by reducing baseline GHG emissions from crop and livestock production.
Soil is an essential natural resource for all farmers. Over recent years many initiatives have sought to provide information and advice on soils and Soil Health, notably AHDB Great Soils.
The number of tools and calculators available can be daunting. None are necessarily right or wrong, the appropriate tool for you depends on the question you are asking.
The intricate web of relationships between physical, chemical and biological soil components underpins crop and livestock health and productivity.
The standard way to measure and monitor soils has been through soils samples taken to 15-30cm in representative W patterns. A range of technologies are now available commercially and in development to provide higher resolution data across a wider range of metrics. This page provides a space to share and discuss the available and coming tools, services and technologies.
Carbon Metrics is a consultancy firm offering detailed analysis of agricultural carbon audits to help service sector businesses identify where on farm mitigation is both environmentally and commercially sustainable in order to help reduce the environmental impacts or greenhouse gases from farming enterprises
The British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) is an established international membership organisation committed to the study of soil in its widest aspects. The society brings together those working within academia, practitioners implementing soil science in industry and all those working with, or with an interest in soils.
Harnessing our collective strengths to bring about a step change in more sustainable soil health practices over the next decade
Our new book on Understanding and fostering soil carbon sequestration edited by Cornelia Rumpel, Director of Research in the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences at the French National Research Center, provides an authoritative review of all the latest research in this important area.
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/
The Claydon Opti-Till® System, is a holistic approach to crop establishment which delivers consistent, high yielding crops at low cost, providing maximum profitability. At the centre of Opti-Till® Seed Drilling System is the Claydon direct strip Hybrid drill, with its unique leading tine technology.
regenagri is an international regenerative agriculture program for securing the health of the land and the wealth of those who live on it.
Together, we’re creating plausible pathways, and practical, open science, to achieve Net Zero through the Agrifood system by 2050.
White Horse Energy have secured funding from Department of Energy Security and Net Zero as part of the Biomass Feedstocks Innovation Programme to develop a transportable pelletising technology. This will be deployed at farm level with the capability of processing agricultural residues and perennial energy crops into industrial standard biomass pellets. This produces a high-density renewable energy source, for which the demand is growing substantially because of the need to find alternatives to fossil fuels. A prototype of the mobile pelletiser is currently being developed ready to enter the market. White Horse Energy hopes to provide farmers with an opportunity to increase farm revenue, all year round, without interfering with existing operations. Due to a lack of domestic production, current UK demand for biomass feedstocks significantly outweighs available supply. Therefore, a large proportion of biomass material is currently imported, which limits the sustainable nature of this energy source. White Horse Energy’s innovation will increase the viability of UK production and provide farmers with the opportunity to diversify into a new UK market, with lower environmental impacts and input costs. White Horse Energy are keen to engage with farmers during this development stage to understand the issues and concerns within the agricultural industry that affect growers most. This engagement assists in shaping the project to provide a diversification option that contributes positively to both the environment and farm income. Ultimately producing a solution that meets a wide variety of needs for everyone.
Scientific paper in Carbon Management, Nov 2022.
The 3rd Global Soil Biodiversity Conference to be held in Dublin (Ireland) in 2023 will expand on previous GSBI conferences and convene the world’s leading experts in this interdisciplinary field of soil biodiversity science to present and discuss recent advances addressing the urgency of meeting global challenges which link to human, animal and plant health and a more sustainable world.
The new field lab with Innovative Farmers is investigating bale grazing, a common practice in North America and Canada, where bales are put out in summer to feed cattle through winter.
Reducing your Carbon Footprint: Integrated approaches to reduce emissions and increase carbon sequestration
To build a socially and environmentally resilient and regenerative food system in a net zero landscape, the Sustainable Farm Networks initiative connects diverse demonstration farm networks across the UK to share experiences, findings and best practice.
Soil carbon is undoubtedly important for crop production and soil workability. While incredibly v
Webinar hosted by GWCT with David Powlson - watch the video below.
Our new book on Understanding and fostering soil carbon sequestration edited b
Scientific paper from Rothamsted on SOM levels: Prout JM, Shepherd KD, McGrath SP, Kirk
Direct drilling, also known as no-till farming or zero-till farming, is an agricultural practice that involves planting crops without prior ploughing or cultivation of the soil.
Network of farmers advisors and researchers working together, sharing ideas and data and testing solutions to increase soil carbon
Soil organic matter (OM) is all living or once-living materials in the soil. OM provides a direct source of energy/food for many soil organisms: it is the fuel in the soil food web. Turnover of OM successively releases and immobilises elements vital to the nutrition of crops.
We are pleased to announce that the next British Society of Soil Science Annual Conference will be a joint event with the Soil Science Society of Ireland and take place in Belfast on Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 December 2023.
This report by the German Environment Agency examines the mitigation potential of climate friendly soil management practices at global, EU and German level, along with key management measures, their co-benefits and trade-offs, and implementation challenges.
The agricultural industry is heading toward a more sustainable, profitable, and efficient future. Future Farming Expo will bring together forward-thinking Scottish farmers, advisors, and rural businesses over two days for knowledge hubs, discussion, and networking across a busy exhibition hall.
Certain crops (potatoes, sugar beet, maize, field vegetables) within a wider arable rotation pose increased risk of soil loss or degradation. Often described as ‘risky’ these crops may require additional management to ensure that field conditions are favourable and that there is no long-term disruption to soil functionality or structure.
Increasing the amount of C stored in soil is beneficial from a climate change mitigation perspective.
Join this online broadcast with Sean Cameron to learn about soil preservation techniques, carbon capture in agriculture, leadership and more.
Healthy, well-managed soils support productive and healthy crops and pasture and allows for a profitable and resilient farming system.
Improving soils by building soil organic matter is a win, win situation for everyone.
You are invited to join us for this winter meeting at David Fuller-Shapcotts Sweethope Farm.
Get your carbon questions answered as FarmED delve into the world of soil carbon, sequestration, net zero and carbon credits.
Cover crops and green manures have multiple positive effects on the soil health. But like all methods, this best practice has also some disadvantages.
Soil carbon is a component of soil organic matter which derives from the deposition and incorporation of leaf litter, crop residues, plant material, dead roots and animal wastes. Approximately 58% of soil organic matter is carbon.
The British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) is delighted to announce the next Zoom into Soil webinar will take place on Wednesday 7 February from 12:00 - 1:00pm (UK time) and is free of charge to register.
This RASE Infographic describes how you can effectively manage soils to decarbonise and improve biodiversity on your farm.
This paper aims to summarize the evidence base concerning carbon storage in pasture land used for livestock production.
We are delighted to be able to invite you to attend this Farm Walk to hear from the team at Lockerley Estate about how they are working to reduce farm-based emissions whilst storing more carbon into soils and non-crop biomass.
EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA) is a global provider of AI-powered satellite imagery analytics founded by Dr. Max Polyakov, an international space technology and IT entrepreneur and philanthropist. The company operates worldwide, partnering with governmental, commercial, and scientific organizations. The company provides Earth observation solutions for smart decision-making in agriculture and forestry. EOSDA combines data retrieved from satellite imagery with AI technologies and proprietary algorithms to analyze the state of crops within farms and trees growing in forest stands to drive businesses and implement sustainable practices globally. The EOSDA’s mission is to harness the power of satellite technologies to provide businesses with fast and accurate data-driven decisions. EOSDA’s main product in the agriculture industry is EOSDA Crop Monitoring, an online satellite field monitoring service that collects all the important information about the state of crops in one tool.
The British Society of Soil Science 2024 Annual Conference will take place from Wednesday 4 – Friday 6 December in Cardiff.
According to PAS 2050 Specification for lifecycle assessment of GHG emissions the increase in Soi
From HillsGreen webinar on 3/2/2022 - In current times, carbon has become a buzzword. I
Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlight how human acti
Lots of people claim to have increased their soil organic matter levels by using minimum tillage
Discussion
Can soil carbon be measured with sufficient accuracy to justify carbon offsetting charges?
Should soil carbon measurement include both non-labile and labile carbon?
As a generality the addition of soil carbon increases reserves up until the point when the carbon addition is matched to the increased oxidation of the larger carbon pool. My interest is that in at least some situations direct drilling will release more nitrous oxide (depending on waterlogging and temperature) and this will probably not change significantly. The result is that direct drilling in the long term is not positive for reducing emissions in the longer term (ignoring cultivation energy).
Is there any comment from those in research?