Allotments could be key to sustainable farming, study finds
Soils under Britain’s allotments are significantly healthier than intensively farmed soils and with the first study to show that growing at small-scale in urban areas produces food sustainably without damaging soils, authors say planning and policy makers should promote urban own-growing as a sustainable way of meeting increasing food demand. An increase in urban allotments […]
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria could save arable farmers £1000s
Arable farmers could slash fertiliser costs, boost yields, and protect the environment following the launch of a new nitrogen-fixing bacteria mix. Developed by Jim Brown at Soil Systems, Enfixa is a combination of nitrogen-fixing and nutrient-solubilising bacteria, which fix atmospheric nitrogen and turn it into a usable source for the crop. It can be used […]
New wireless network to revolutionise soil testing
A University of Southampton researcher has helped to develop a wireless network of sensors that is set to revolutionise soil-based salinity measuring. Dr Nick Harris, from Electronics and Electrical Engineering, worked with a group of professors from the University of Western Australia (UWA) to produce the revolutionary sensor that can carry out non-destructive testing of […]
Ploughing the only way forward to repair flood damage to soil
Flood damage to soil and flood-repair is one situation that will benefit more from full tillage of the soil rather than no-tillage (or direct drilling), says the New Zealand specialist soil scientist John Baker. Any organic matter and soil microbial life in that eroded soil will have been stripped out and washed away, so it […]
‘Grasp chance to axe EU soil directive’, says CLA
The Association said its work on the issue and continued support of the Government as part of a blocking minority have led to the Directive being stopped in its tracks – with little prospect of getting going again. CLA President Harry Cotterell said: “We believe the UK already has policies in place to deliver soil […]
Get soils fit to work
While much of their focus will be on correcting physical damage done in the past two years, he says they also need to get a really accurate assessment of the soil’s chemical and productive capacity before making plans – something many of the soil tests currently available fail to do. The company highlighted the issue […]
Scottish scientists to investigate links between soil degradation and poverty
The ALTER project (Alternative Carbon Investments in Ecosystems for Poverty Alleviation) is a 3 year international research initiative led by the James Hutton Institute with partners from Ethiopia and Uganda, including Hawassa University, the Ethiopian Government’s Southern Agricultural Research Institute and the Carbon Foundation for East Africa (Uganda) as well as CGIAR, International Water Management […]
Soils at all-time nutrient low
“Farmers will be desperate to apply early N to encourage backward crops, but it is important they make the right decisions based upon the right information to make the most of what is already turning out to be a tough season” Recent soil analysis carried out by Yara across six sites has shown that over […]
Nutrient status of rain drenched soils drives 2013 fertiliser strategy
Following months of heavy rain, a considerable amount of nutrients will have been leached from the soil and Nitrogen index is likely to be at, or close, to zero. “Last year was almost without precedent in terms of the damage done to soil structure and nutrient values and management moving forward must take this […]
