More than a third of UK agricultural soil degraded by intensive farming – report

More than 60% of the EU’s cultivation soils are degraded owed to intensive agriculture, with akin harm to astir 40% of British soils, a study has found.

Experts from the Save Soil inaugural said nourishing and restoring cultivation soils could trim the interaction of the clime situation and supply extortion against the worsening extremes of weather, arsenic good arsenic the nutrient shortages and terms rises apt to travel them.

This degradation of ungraded is changing the land’s h2o rhythm and exacerbating the interaction of the clime situation successful a vicious circle. Impoverished soils, lacking their earthy structure, are incapable of holding h2o successful immoderate quantity, truthful that erstwhile it rains, the h2o tends to tally disconnected them, worsening flooding; but successful times of drought, erstwhile steadfast soils would enactment arsenic a sponge, mediocre soils person small resilience.

Save Soil, which advocates regenerative farming practices, called for ungraded restoration to beryllium made a cardinal precedence of clime programmes, and for changes successful cultivation policies and subsidies to reward it.

“Europe and the UK are experiencing extremes – parched fields 1 month, flooded towns the next. What this study makes wide is that our soils are nary longer buffering us,” said a spokesperson for the group. “We are losing the earthy infrastructure that manages water.”

In 2022, a 3rd of the EU colonisation and 40% of the bloc’s onshore were affected by h2o scarcity, portion Spain, Italy and Germany person besides seen disastrous floods successful 2023-2024, the study noted. Groundwater levels person dropped by a 3rd successful France, and the UK is apt to spot drought this twelvemonth contempt grounds rainfall past year.

Nearly fractional of the planetary municipality population, astir 2.4 cardinal people, volition look water scarcity by 2050, according to the UN. Price rises of immoderate commodities affected by the clime crisis, including coffee and chocolate, are already being seen by consumers.

Last year, a UN survey recovered an excess of brackish was already reducing the fertility of astatine slightest 10% of onshore globally, portion a further 1bn hectares were nether threat. Healthy soils besides store much carbon, helping to offset the interaction of fossil fuels.

Karen Johnson, prof of biology engineering astatine Durham University, who was not progressive with the report, said: “Soil is simply a surviving worldly intimately connected to quality and planetary wellness and it is lone by moving with ungraded arsenic a surviving worldly that we tin code the planetary challenges [facing] water. Let’s enactment with the ungraded microbiome alternatively of against it – we whitethorn arsenic good harness implicit 3 cardinal years of evolutionary knowledge.”

Hannah Blitzer, a elder argumentation serviceman astatine the Soil Association, called connected the UK authorities to instrumentality action: “It is indispensable that ungraded is amended protected – the UK authorities should springiness this captious assets the aforesaid extortion arsenic h2o and air, portion besides backing nature-friendly farming similar integrated that puts ungraded wellness first. This means moving distant from reliance connected harmful artificial pesticides and fertilisers and switching to gathering resilience successful soils done nature-based solutions.”

In the UK, farmers tin beryllium paid to support and reconstruct their soils done authorities schemes. However, 1 of the cardinal programmes, the sustainable farming incentive, has been paused, and backing for nature-friendly farming is nether menace arsenic the Treasury reviews expenditure, leaving farmers successful uncertainty implicit whether to put successful changing their practices.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “This authorities recognises the value of healthy, functioning ungraded for resilience against the impacts of clime change, specified arsenic flooding and drought and to support nutrient security. That is wherefore we are taking enactment done agri-environment schemes to promote onshore absorption practices that absorption connected a sustainable attack to workplace and ungraded management.”