ELMS-Exchange: Addressing the Key Environmental Challenges Facing Farmers and Landowners
Words by Shauna Crewes
ELMS is anticipated to drive the greatest shift in agriculture and land management decision-making since the post-World War Two productivist agendas of the mid-20th Century. Its focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity regeneration and sustainable food production, aligns with our own goals of supporting the commercial environment and agri-industry.
Will Blake
Professor of Catchment Science
Aiming to promote sustainable farming practices that support the recovery of local nature and improve food production, the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) is a policy framework created by DEFRA and is integral to the UK Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan.
The University of Plymouth is leading the ELMS-Exchange, a project initially focussing on the South West but with the aim of providing guidance for the next generation of ELMS-related research through stakeholder workshops and development of pilot projects with external partners.
Led by Professor William Blake, ELMS-Exchange takes an interdisciplinary, systems-thinking approach and is utilising the expertise from across natural and social sciences. In partnership with the Sustainable Soils Alliance, ELMS-Exchange has hosted workshops centred around the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), exploring how the incentive can deliver for soil health, farm productivity and food security.
Professor Will Blake
Speakers from the Defra Rural Payments Agency and the National Farmers Union (NFU) informed workshop delegates on the background of current policy initiatives, highlighting the challenges and opportunities of the SFI from the agricultural industry’s perspective, and supporting co-design of critical R&D questions from the sector for the research community to address.
“There is risk associated with the introduction of such a major policy change. ELMS-Exchange will help to mitigate that, steering our research capacity to provide future environmental intelligence that is aligned with the demands of both policy and industry.” Professor Will Blake
Working in tandem with projects across the SEI, including ESLL (Environmental Space Living Lab), ELMS-Exchange draws on proven interdisciplinary methods in stakeholder engagement and is also advancing agri-tech capabilities at the University of Plymouth. Deploying a range of technology, including our Robotic Traction Unit (RTU) and a range of soil sensor technology, our researchers will be able to assist farmers across the region to better understand the factors affecting soil quality and the benefits of on-farm soil assessment.
Entering the second year of the project, the team are currently working closely with Riverford Organic where our natural scientists (Dr Rupert Goddard , Dr Alex Taylor, Dr Nicola Mansfield and Professor Will Blake) are helping to conduct tests across different land use (e.g. pasture, green manure and vegetables). The team are exploring how farmer-led evaluation, using SFI guidance of on-farm testing, compares to traditional sample based approaches and rapid sensor-tech tools that offer a cheaper alternative to soil science expert or research-led evaluation of on farm soil health, and where challenges may occur in each approach. In parallel, our social scientists (led by Dr Claire Kelly ) are examining the barriers and opportunities that the SFI guidelines offer farmers and exploring the uptake and flexibility of such schemes within the farming community.
The work across the project aims to develop an understanding of whether a greater knowledge of soil health, both for farmers/land managers and researchers, informs change in practice with regard to the environmental and business gains, with the end goal of increasing stakeholder confidence in the wider ELMS scheme.
ELMS-Exchange activities
The team will be conducting a breadth of collaborative activities which focus on developing partnerships with the environmental sector and agricultural industry stakeholders which will be taking place across the duration of the two-year ELMS-Exchange programme.
Initially, the team will focus on conducting workshops and establishing pilot projects with external partners. These are expected to provide evidence bases and guidance to support the implementation of new policy for the environment and food production.
