More than 90% uptake for Soil Nutrient Health Scheme

The deadline for this phase of the project was Wednesday past (August 31). However, it is anticipated that the figure could rise to almost 100%, once the final tallies have been completed.

The news was broken by AFBI staff attending the September 01 ARCZero farm walk, held on the Aghadowey dairy farm of the Harbison family.

All of this will come as very welcome news to Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) officials, farm minister Edwin Poots and stakeholders bodies - including the Ulster Farmers’ Union.

In his case, Edwin Poots has already made it very clear that eligibility for future farm support will be contingent on farmers actively participating in the Soil Nutrient Health Scheme.

Zone 1 of the measure takes in all of Co Down and a large proportion of Co Armagh.

Approximately 300 people attended the latest ARCZero farm walk. This was the fourth of seven such events that will be held up to June of next year.

ARCZero chairman, Professor John Gilliland, said that the scale of the turnout confirmed the growing recognition at farm level that the challenge of climate change and the journey towards Carbon Net Zero is now a very real one.

He added: “A net zero position is entirely different to that of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions entirely within a farming business.

“In calculating a carbon footprint full account is taken of the emissions produced but also of the carbon that is actively carbon sequestered from the atmosphere within a farming business.”

According to Gilliland the work undertaken courtesy of the ARCZero project will be used to frame the actual strategies that will be used to secure that targets laid down within the climate change legislation agreed by Stormont earlier this year.

But he also had a very clear message for politicians and food retailers.

He added: “Securing improved efficiencies at farm level will only get agriculture in Northern Ireland so far down the road towards Net Zero.

“At some stage government and food retailers will have to actively pay for the carbon that farmers actively manage.

“This principle has already been endorsed for the energy sector, in terms of how that industry uses fossil fuels. The reality is that farmers manage the largest carbon store in the country: it’s in our soils, woodlands, hedgerows and individual trees.”

A total of seven farming families are actively participating in the ARCZero initiative.

As part of this initiative the carbon stores within their businesses have been accurately determined, courtesy of soil sampling and LIDAR mapping.

In the case of the Harbison family, LIDAR analysis has confirmed a total carbon store of 538t that is currently ‘locked up’ within the trees, hedges and woodland on their 200ha farm.

It is envisaged that the soil sampling and biomass assessment measurements undertaken over recent months will be repeated in five years’ time.

By taking this approach, it will be possible to gauge how effective the climate change-related management practises introduced during this period have been in actively sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.