The way ahead

The Focus On Farming Practice Project is concluding the current area of research and sponsorship, and is preparing to look forward to meet new challenges ahead. The work carried out to date has highlighted areas in need of further research, some of which are listed below.

The move of subsidy payments from pillar I to pillar II environmental payments will require detailed work on the practical and economic effects of different options.
There is still the need to evaluate the cumulative effect of different soil management practices on soil erosion, diffuse pollution, water permeability, water holding and flooding issues. Further work needs to look at reducing the indirect costs of agriculture such as diffuse pollution, and promoting practices that may be beneficial such as carbon sequestration in soils. More work could be carried out looking at the effect of minimum tillage or direct drilling on soil nutrient profiles at different depths.
A greater understanding of the contribution that beneficial insects make to pest control is required. The impact of different farming practices on these beneficial insects needs to be better understood, in a long term study where the cumulative effect of certain practices (such as no insecticides or slug pellets and minimum tillage) can be evaluated.
Birds are very dependent on the countryside environment, and provide a useful indicator of biodiversity. Further work is needed on how different farm management practices influence bird populations, and the economics of each practice.
Further work on weed population dynamics under different cultivation systems and rotations could be carried out.
Operational costs could be modelled to enable the true cultivation and operational costs of different systems to be obtained for a commercially sized farm.
Differences in disease build-up between the minimum tillage and plough-based systems could be evaluated.
Further work on small mammals and the influence of farming systems needs to be carried out.
As NVZ's dictate Nitrogen rates according to "crop need", more work is needed on the effect of minimum cultivation techniques on nitrogen availability.
There are many other areas including the real need for technology transfer, and demonstration of IFM techniques, in which the Focus On Farming Practice project with its nine-year history could play a pivotal role. We look forward to demonstrating and furthering the case for IFM.