HC Deb 02 December 2002 vol 395 cc495-6W
Gregory Barker

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment. Food and Rural Affairs what steps are being taken by her Department to investigate the impact of (a) conventional and (b) organic farming systems on soil organisms and the role they play in relation to (i) retention of moisture and carbon, (ii) delivering nutrients and (iii) the avoidance of soil erosion. [81901]

Mr. Meacher

The study of soil organisms in relation to aspects of soil fertility forms a significant part of the Department's R&D budget. The Department is spending approximately £1.2 million on Soil R&D in 2002–03. This includes work on soil fertility, quality, erosion and sustainable management. Examples include SP0130 which is investigating the long-term impacts of sewage sludge additions on soil properties; SP0519 which considers critical levels of soil organic matter for soil stability and function, and SP0524 an audit of all UK soil research. We fund monitoring of soil quality including the Representative Soil Sampling Scheme (current project SR0123) and the National Soil Inventory (current project SP0521). A recently completed project (OF0164) compared the soil fertility in soils farmed organically and conventionally. The project found evidence of increased levels of earthworms and beneficial nematodes in organic compared to conventional soils, but concluded that the differences in soil microbiology were subtle rather than dramatic. There is to be a review of our soil R&D in spring 2003. Future R&D is likely to consider soil function, soil biology and improved monitoring.

In relation to the effects of soil organisms on

  1. (i) retention of moisture and carbon, research is proceeding on factors influencing the levels of organic matter in soils, which will in turn affect water retention;
  2. (ii) delivering nutrients, a large amount of research has been funded on the effects of soil organisms in cycling nutrients within soils, and work is continuing in this area;
  3. (iii) the avoidance of soil erosion, research on soil erosion has shown that soil structure can be an important factor and this in turn can be affected by soil organisms. However other factors, such as slope, crop, cultivation, soil type and rainfall intensity, are often of equal or greater importance.