Sustainable Agricultural Production
Sustainable Agricultural Production
Our definition of sustainable agricultural production is the ability of a system to maintain stable levels of food production and quality in the long-term without escalating requirements for agro-chemical inputs to regulate the system. In order to achieve, the following areas of expertise are required:
Soils
- a healthy soil is essential to any sustainable production system and we have expertise in soil physics, soil chemistry as well as soil biology and the interactions between plant roots and the soil.
Pesticides and Integrated Pest Management
- we can help you reduce pesticide use by breeding new varieties with improved pest and disease resistance of by developing integrated pest management strategies based on our knowledge of pest epidemiology
Biodiversity
- we can study the impact of different agronomic practices on the whole arable system, including biodiversity, soil health and nutrition, carbon and nitrogen fluxes, pollution, pest and disease population dynamics, and crop yield and quality. Above and below-ground biodiversity indicators are used to assess impacts of management practices and cultivars over many rotation cycles.
Food Safety and Quality
- we have all the analytical capability required to asses a wide range of measures of food quality including nutritional components and the detection of pesticides. We also have specialists studying the presence of human pathogens on field grown fruit and vegetables
Water and Water Use Efficiency
- the impact of climate change and the prediction of less reliable rainfall in the future, has focussed attention on developing crops that have improved water use efficiency. We are also looking at methods in which the timing and location of irrigation water can be improved so as to improve efficiency.
Fertilisers and Nutrient Use Efficiency
- we aim to optimise the acquisition and accumulation of minerals thereby improving nutritional quality and reducing fertiliser input. We also study microbial activity and plant secretions around plant roots with the aim of understanding and improving nutrient acquisition. This is complemented by field and glasshouse trials of alternative fertilisers such as composts and waste materials.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- our research on carbon and nutrient cycling in arable soils will lead to a greater understanding of carbon and nutrient retention in soil and enable predictions of greenhouse gas emissions from different farming systems. We have the capability to measure not only nitrogen and phosphorous in soil and water, but also CO2 and NOx emissions from plants and decomposition rates.
This wide ranging expertise gives us the unique ability to identify trade-offs between different aspects of the arable system rather than just looking at each in isolation. This whole-system approach offers a more realistic assessment of the likely environmental and economic impacts of a change in management practice.
We are interested in taking to companies who wish to develop sustainability policies and targets and work with them to help them achieve these targets.
We have established an unique new experimental research platform at Balruddery Farm for long-term studies on arable sustainability. The overall goal is to test whether or not potential solutions for sustainable agriculture actually result in improved arable biodiversity, resilience, crop productivity and yield stability at a commercial, field-scale over at least twenty years.
