Biodiversity 4Agriculture: lessons from the Centre for Sustainable Cropping

Managing nutrients to minimise fertiliser inputs using legumes for Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF) and Soil Nitrogen Supply to calculate crop fertiliser requirement.

Mineral nitrogen fertiliser use is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions from arable production, both as direct emissions and indirectly in the manufacturing process. Efficient use is therefore economically and environmentally important. This can be achieved by improvements in soil health to optimise uptake, timing application for when it is most needed, incorporating legumes into the rotation to supplement N inputs with BNF, and cover crops to minimise losses over winter.