Improving Soil Health and Water Quality through increased farmer awareness and adoption of best management practices

Start date: 1 June 2022
End date: 30 March 2026
Value: £700,000
Partners and collaborators: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute Ulster University
Primary investigator: Professor Julia Martin-Ortega
Co-investigators: Dr Paula Novo, Professor Pippa Chapman, Dr Cheng Wen
External co-investigators: Dr. Rachel Cassidy, Afbi Mr. Alex Higgins, Afbi Prof. Phil Jordan, Ulster University

Green field blue sky with clouds. Cows grazing

The Soil Nutrient Health Scheme is the largest baseline soil sampling programme ever undertaken. The £37M DAERA funded scheme is being managed by AFBI and due to it's scale and complexity it is being rolled out on a zonal basis in the whole of Northern Ireland. In this project, we apply interdisciplinary approaches using behavioural and catchment since to unpack the complexity of the awareness-behavioural change-water quality pathway, trying to understand how the increase of farmers awareness over soil and water quality can prompt the adoption of best farm management practices and ultimately reduce diffuse pollution from agriculture.

Publications and outputs

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105397
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105397
https://doi.org/10.3390/w11010029

https://doi.org/10.3390/land9050135
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112242
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.01.011

Project website

https://www.afbini.gov.uk/articles/soil-nutrient-health-scheme