Soil Health Metrics for Environmental Land Management Schemes

A Soil Security Programme (SSP) group of expert soil health researchers and practitioners met on 20 and 21 May 2019 to discuss which were the most practical and reliable farmer-led measurements for soil health, and their potential applicability in the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) development.
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A Soil Security Programme (SSP) group of expert soil health researchers and practitioners met on 20 and 21 May 2019 to discuss which were the most practical and reliable farmer-led
measurements for soil health, and their potential applicability in the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) development.

Workshop objectives

  1. Develop a consensus as to the most practical and reliable on farm measurements for soil health;
  2. Recommend a soil health measurement methodology for Defra to include in the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) development.

A site visit to the National Trust Home Farm at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire was followed by a discussion workshop from which the attached recommendations were drawn.

Soil-Health-Metrics-Workshop-May-2019-Recommendations-to-Defra-FINAL-20.09.19Download

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A vital knowledge gap about England’s environment has been uncovered by soil campaigners.
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SSP Editor 16 March 2020