Award details

S2N - Soil to Nutrition - Work package 2 (WP2) - Adaptive management systems for improved efficiency and nutritional quality

Reference	BBS/E/C/000I0320
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Laura Cardenas
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Tom Misselbrook, Dr Jonathan Storkey
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	5,620,364
Status	Current
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2017
End date	31/03/2023
Duration	59 months

Abstract

Sustainable intensification (SI) implies farms maintain or increase yields and quality while minimising inputs and the environmental footprint of agriculture whilst ensuring economic viability. The scientific underpinning of SI and related policy is evolving and therefore we need to provide support to farming using the most advanced evidence and knowledge. The principle innovative step in this work package (WP) is to develop new tools (metrics of sustainability) which accommodate the new knowledge taking into account the mechanistic constraints that underlie the trade-offs between productivity, efficiency and resilience of agricultural systems. The new metrics will be informed by indicators of soil health for enhanced efficiency of nutrient utilization (ENU) at the soil-plant-microbe interface and in collaboration with the ASSIST strategic programme on the function of non-crop biodiversity and soil abiotic stress. The work will focus on the means of achieving the mechanistic targets from WP1 by mapping those on to management targets that can be operationalised on-farm. The North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP), Rothamsted Long Term Experiments (LTE) and Large Scale Rotation Experiments (LSRE) provide the unique capability to link nutrient stocks and flows at the plant scale (studied in WP1) to detailed measures of stocks and flows at the farm scale (losses, yield and quality) that will be studied in this WP. This analysis will convert a set of indicators that relate current best knowledge on mechanistic target states (developed in WP1) to 'fit-for-purpose' SI metrics that can be routinely measured on farms that do not benefit from the exhaustive instrumentation of the NWFP. The indicators represent a hypothesised relationship linking mechanisms to management that will be validated and further developed into metrics using existing experimental farm platforms (NWFP and LTE), the new LSRE, and the commercial farm networks established within the ASSIST programme.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Soil Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

I accept the terms and conditions of use (opens in new window)

export PDF file

back to list new search