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Research into Sustainable Farming to Produce High Quality, Safe Foods

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Published: 10Aug2011
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Intensifying crop production to meet a growing global population by using good farming practices which follow ecosystem-based approaches is the Food and Agriculture Organisation's definition of sustainable crop production.

The aim is to meet consumers' demands for products that are of high quality, safe and produced in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Research in the UK and elsewhere is playing an important part in achieving these two goals.

One successful project, run by Dr Paul Benham with students and volunteers is in Wales, is producing £25,000 of organic fruit and vegetables per year on just 1.5 acres of land.

Dr Benham says the system has been designed to be in harmony with the environment, as a high biodiversity, low-carbon polyculture working with nature which, he argues, can survive peak oil and climate change, unlike modern, energy-intensive monoculture, where single crops are grown in huge fields dependent on chemicals and heavy machinery.

The farm rotates the crops helps to help control pests and improve soil structure and fertility and in winter, vegetation is planted that covers bare soil fast, smothering weeds and enriching the soil. black plastic sheets are laid over raised beds to lock in nutrients. Growing beneath the farm's fruit trees are fruit bushes and also aromatic herbs such as mints, lemon balm, tansy to put pests off the scent of their favourite foods.

Selling locally means that the food is eaten soon after picking and has lost none of its qualities.

Elsewhere the University of Bristol is involved in a three-year study called the Insect Pollinators Initiative, based on the fact that 80% of British plant species including may key food crops depend on insect pollination.

A significant decline in pollinator numbers, particularly bees, in recent years, has been linked to environmental changes, pests and disease.

The researchers are surveying city, rural and farm habitats to map insect numbers and concentrations. It is known, for example, that bees can thrive in the city, while farmland habitats can offer a feast and famine situation for insects when a crop such as oil seed rape is in flower, but offering little for them once the flowering is over. The researchers think that plant choice in nature reserves may also be limited.

It is hoped that that finding out where pollinating insects are doing well could help find ways to boost their numbers.

Another project being carried out by Earthwatch, among coffee producers in Costa Rica has teamed up with local organisations and employees of Starbucks to find tools and techniques to help farmers enhance the quality of their land and develop better soil conservation measures.

Research that involves harnessing the power of natural substances also takes place in the labs of the biopesticides developers. The result is a range of biopesticides, biofungicides and yield enhancers that will also add to the range of available techniques to help farmers both increase their crop production while minimising loss from pests and diseases but also to do it in a way that protects the richness of the nutrients in the soil.

Research into insect pollinators and low-chem agricultural products and an experiment in organic farming are among a number of projects that will have benefits for sustainable crop production and safer, more natural foods. By Ali Withers.

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