Cereal growers can claim payments of up to £100/ha thanks to a regenerative farming scheme in conjunction with pet food manufacturer James Wellbeloved.
The company’s Beloved Soil initiative makes the payments according to the sustainable farming practices carried out when growing oats and barley. It is run in partnership with Agrii and Soil Association Exchange.
Sustainability isn’t just about the environment, it’s about ensuring food security and building a resilient and profitable farming sector, says Agrii sustainability and environmental services manager Amy Hardwick.
“With the type of transition growers are now facing combined with the ongoing fluctuations in grain prices and input costs, the industry faces significant challenges,” she says.
Resilience
“While nobody has all the answers for achieving long-term resilience, Agrii is exploring ways to encourage sustainable practices and offer rewards for growers starting the journey.
“Regenerative farming doesn’t work for everyone, so we are looking at programmes that embrace some of these principles while helping our producers fund the transition to more sustainable farming.”
The first tier of the scheme consists of a guaranteed payment for carrying out basic practices such as an integrated pest management plan, use of cover crops, having a planned crop rotation and having an environmental baseline analysis carried out.
After that, farmers can add supplementary practices into the mix. “The aim is to help incentivise continuous improvement and provide a motive for farmers to continually develop their sustainability practices,” says Ms Hardwick.
The same principles apply to Agrii’s new wheat supply chain programme, run in collaboration with Whitworth Bros and Bunge.
“There is a set of minimum requirements as a starting point for all those taking part in the scheme, with the flexibility to implement additional options that suit their farm.
“While still early days, the new scheme is a very viable opportunity for growers and testimony that different areas of the supply chain are collaborating to deliver positive changes.”
Lower emissions
David Powlson, emeritus professor at Rothamsted Research, says modern fertiliser solutions could unlock huge potential for farmers to capitalise on these schemes while cutting input costs and slashing emissions.
“A simple change in nutrient planning alone could deliver 20% of the UK’s ammonia emission reductions required to meet the 2020 Gothenburg convention ceiling,” he says.
According to a recent review, co-authored by Professor Powlson, replacing manufactured ammonium sulphate fertiliser with naturally occurring polysulphate, for example, could reduce on-farm ammonia emissions by up to 90%.
“Typical ammonium sulphate fertiliser is subject to volatilisation in soils with a pH of 6.5 or above, which account for over 60% of the UK’s arable soils,” he explains.
“This loss of nitrogen as ammonia, which is as great as with uninhibited urea on high pH soils, has received hardly any attention recently, despite the concerns over ammonia emissions and efforts to improve nitrogen use efficiency.”
With 40% of UK arable soils at or above pH 7.0, and 21% between pH 6.5 and 7.0, Prof Powlson believes that replacing ammonium sulphate with polysulphate could make a major dent in emissions.
“All sources of sulphur are not the same. While ammonium sulphate is a convenient form of sulphur, it is prone to this ammonia loss so, particularly on high pH soils, polysulphate would avoid this problem.”
Nitrogen strategies
Richard Ward, technical sales manager at fertiliser supplier ICL, says polysulphate can play a pivotal role in getting the best out of low carbon nitrogen sources.
“By supplying sulphur independently of nitrogen, growers can match application timing to crop demand and avoid the ammonia losses associated with ammonium sulphate,” he explains.
“This also gives greater flexibility to integrate new-generation low carbon nitrogen fertilisers into nutrient programmes without compromising yield potential.”
This separation is becoming increasingly relevant as supply chains, from milling wheat to pet food, are setting stringent sustainability targets, says Mr Ward.
“By matching nutrient strategies with the sustainability scorecard, growers can protect yields while meeting low-carbon expectations.”