Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to support farmers and growers in using nutrient cycling to build soil resilience.

We agree that healthy soils should be a priority outcome for our new environmental land management schemes in England, and to help achieve our commitment to sustainably managed soils by 2030, we are already taking action to support land managers and farmers to achieve sustainable soil management. We are focusing on soil in two of the first standards that have been rolled out under the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme in 2022: the Improved Grassland Soils and Arable and Horticultural Soils standards. As soils are one of the most important natural assets, these two standards are focused on improving soil health, structure, organic matter, and biology. These improvements can benefit food production. They also contribute to a range of environmental and climate change outcomes, including better water quality, climate resilience and biodiversity.

We already pay for actions to support the sustainable management of soils through the SFI Improved Grassland Soils and Arable and Horticultural Soils standards. These actions are:

• completing a soil assessment and producing a soil management plan
• testing soil organic matter
• adding organic matter to arable and horticultural soils
• minimising bare ground over winter on improved grassland by having no more than 5% of the total area of land entered into the standard left bare over winter
• minimising bare ground over winter on arable and horticultural land by having no more than 70% of the total area of land entered into the standard left bare over winter
• establishing and maintaining herbal leys on at least 15% of the improved grassland land in the intermediate level of the standard
• establishing and maintaining a winter cover crop on at least 20% of the arable and horticultural land in the intermediate level of the standard

We are also rolling out a Nutrient Management Standard in 2023, which will include actions such as complete a nutrient management (NM) assessment and produce an NM review report with the help of crop nutrition adviser; establish and maintain legumes on improved grassland; and establish and maintain legume fallow on arable land. The actions aim to help farmers to assess and review ways to minimise use of artificial fertiliser, maximise the use of natural sources of nitrogen and improve their nutrient efficiency. Additionally, the actions will help provide food for farmland wildlife, such as pollinators and farmland birds.