Earthworms Count: How Healthy is Your Soil?

One of the earthworms found in a soil sample in Shropshire

By Jeremy Lelean, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading

Soil, from being an overlooked area of research, is now considered an area of vital interest in the solution to many of the global problems of we currently face. A key idea of how to manage our soil is the notion of soil health, which was referred to regularly in the newly published DEFRA Twenty-Five Year Environment Plan.

Measuring soil health, however, is a vexed question as there are a number of potential indicators that can be used. One of these is earthworm numbers, but numbers alone may not give a good picture of soil health overall. As part of the Soil Security Programme, fellow Dr Jackie Stroud has developed a method that is more indicative of soil health than simple earthworm numbers.

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Bees, climate and food: the Reading research listed among world’s elite

Reading’s research on bees and pollinators is among the highest profile in the world – Picture (c) Dara Stanley

Ecology, climate and food science have helped to put the University of Reading in a group of the world’s elite research institutions in a new analysis of the most cited scientific papers.

The Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers table lists more than 3,300 most cited scientists in the world – those who have published a high number of papers ranking in the top 1% most-cited in their respective fields over the last 11 years.

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News from Prosperity & Resilience: Peter Dorward

Peter Dorward

Peter Dorward

In May 2017 the Guyana government together with the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology facilitated a workshop one developing Participatory Integrated Climate Services of Agriculture (PICSA). The training enabled farmers to make informed decisions based on accurate, location specific, climate and weather information; locally relevant crop, livestock and livelihood options, and with the use of participatory tools, aid their decision making.

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Exploring the impact of drought on 2017 wheat crop

By Professor Donal O’Sullivan, Professor of Crop Science in the School of Agriculture, University of Reading

Unfavourable weather patterns and their impact on crop production have again been a major talking point in farming circles. Bizarrely, whilst the total amount of rainfall in 2017 to date is very close to the historic average, it has been distributed in a very unhelpful way (as data from the University’s Meteorology Department weather station helpfully plotted out in an up-to-the-minute annual graph shows).

Weather data from the University of Reading shows the drought in April and summer deluge

First and foremost, there was almost no meaningful rainfall for a six-week period spanning the calendar month of April, when crops were going through their most rapid phase of growth. But to compound matters, there was an unusual deluge in the second half of July, when dry conditions would have been more conducive to straightforward ripening and harvest.

Assessing the impact of this latest extreme weather episode was the subject of a BBC South Today news piece I contributed to on Tuesday evening. The research team I am leading in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development may have some answers. We designed a large field experiment designed both to quantify yield losses due to drought and to detect varieties with drought-beating characteristics.

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The four Alternative Food Network trends, and how they are changing the way we eat

By Professor Mike Goodman, Professor of Environment and Development/Human Geography, University of Reading.

Professor Goodman appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today on Monday (8 May), to discuss the growth of Alternative Food Networks. Here he explains more about how they are evolving and why they face a cloudy future.

Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) in the UK—what we might think of as a loose confederation of actors working for a more ecologically, socially and economically friendly food system—are coming of age.

No longer are shoppers only confronted by wilted, dirty organic lettuce picked by ‘back to the landers’ wanting to live alternative lifestyles off the grid. AFNs are now not just at the forefront of quality food revolution for the ‘worried well’ and that of the technological revolution about how we grow and eat food, but, more problematically, are also on the frontlines of feeding the so-called ‘JAMs’ (just-about-making it) and economically marginal populations who are not getting enough to eat. Continue reading