Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-06-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how soils research sponsored by the Research Councils is translated into practical measures that can be readily adopted at farm level.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The findings from soils research are translated into practical measures that can be applied at farm level in a number of ways. This includes testing of measures as part of the research, reviews of the evidence base feeding into the development of farmer guidance or direct knowledge transfer as part of the research project.

No formal assessment has been made of how soils research sponsored by the Research Councils is translated into practice. However, the part-Defra funded Soil Evidence Review, published in 2015 as part of the Natural Environment Research Council’s Soil Security Programme, emphasised the importance of engagement between researchers and farmers as being a priority to ensure understanding of agricultural issues (e.g. practical and economic challenges) and to aid the effective implementation of new knowledge and technologies.