Eight LEAF farmers will be tailoring their Integrated Farm Management practices to the next level of sustainable farming excellence as part of a new one year project, following the success of last year’s Nature Based Solutions project.
The farms, four in Scotland and four in England, who have already made significant strides in integrating the best sustainable farming practices, will be accelerating their approach through more regenerative, nature-based farming systems.
Led by global sustainable farming organisation, LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) and supported by The Linder Foundation*, the one year project will see the farmers use carbon measuring tools to help track emissions and sequestration, identify where efficiencies can be made and set targets for benchmarking and monitoring.
These key baseline assessments will help the farmers get a much better understanding of their own impact on climate change to set objectives and develop their own action plans to drive continual progress. In addition, each farmer will receive bespoke package of advice on their own areas of interest including reducing GHG emissions, soil and water management, habitat creation, grassland management and cover cropping.
Vital time for sustainable farming
Vicky Robinson, director, technical at LEAF said: “This is a vital time for sustainable farming. Faced with the climate and nature crisis, farmers are on the front-line of climate change solutions – reducing carbon emissions, building healthier and more productive soils, and enhancing biodiversity. As a group of LEAF farmers, most of whom are LEAF Marque certified farms, they are already making incremental improvements to net-zero, regenerative farming. This project will provide the management tools, resources, and in-depth advice to build on their skills, know-how and confidence.
With the UK government committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2025 and global targets set by the UN at carbon zero by 2050, the outcomes of this vital work with help support the wider farming industry towards achieving its ambitions.”
The project builds on previous work which supported ten farmers across England to drive forward their climate change farming solutions. It culminated in the publication of a farmer case study booklet Delivering Nature Based Farming Solutions to the Climate Challenge.
Project lead, Will Sibly from LEAF added:“Working at a grass-roots farmer level is a good place to create change. This group of innovative and forward-thinking farmers are already ahead of the game in terms of delivering smarter, more climate positive farming solutions. This project is all about harnessing their expertise, vision, and determination to drive the thinking, communication and practical actions needed to mitigate climate change.
Through technical workshops, group learning and collaboration they will be uniquely placed to facilitate knowledge exchange, practical problem-solving, peer-to-peer learning, and wider changes to farming practice. We are delighted to support these farmers and have them work alongside us in delivering exemplar sustainable farming.”
