Agricology at Groundswell

Since its launch in 2015 in a climate of growing uncertainty about food security, the state of natural resources, climate change and nutritional availability in the UK, Agricology has provided a platform for sharing practical information on ecological farming techniques to enable more resilient and productive farming.

There has since been an ever-increasing need and we continue to endeavour to work with farmers, researchers, and other organisations to find collaborative ways of implementing and communicating practices across all farming approaches that will help improve productivity and profitability whilst protecting the environment.

We are thrilled to be sponsoring the Discussion Tent at Groundswell again this year and are looking forward to catching up with everyone face to face to discuss some of the key issues facing our farming community – it will make a nice change from Teams and Zoom! If you have an inspiring project, trial or story to share, or want to explore a particular farming practice, please come and talk to us at the discussion tent (location DF C21A) or get in touch via enquiries@agricology.co.uk.

We will be running two of the discussion sessions:

‘Water management and the future’

A lack of water – not something always associated with Great Britain, but a very real threat to the future of food and farming. What does the future hold and what can we learn from climate modelling? What challenges are farmers facing now and what practices are they implementing to maintain or improve water quality and reduce or mitigate future impacts of drought, or even flooding? Can IFM play a role? The chair of this session, Tim Field, will be joined by speakers from industry and farming including Stephen Briggs and Ian Simpson, a founder member of a community-led flood group committed to preventing flooding in Cotswold village Bledington, to discuss these questions in more detail and get your input. Come along to the Agricology Discussion tent – 12pm until 1pm on June 22nd.

‘The end is nigh, the end of nitrogen’

Nitrogen – With rising costs, increasingly limited availability and well documented impact on the environment, farmers want to reduce the use, but can the sector facilitate, adapt to, and support this move? Chaired by GWCT’s Alastair Leake, this session will discuss the impacts of reduced nitrogen use and hear first-hand how farmers are moving away from high input systems, as well as discussing learnings from projects including the ‘Living Mulch’ Field Lab (funded by Innovative Farmers and Organic Arable). Come and join the session with farmers Martin Lines, Tim May and ORC’s Dominic Amos – 4.30pm – 5.30pm on June 23rd in the Agricology Discussion tent; hear from the panel, share your experiences and explore some of the positive and negative impacts of reducing reliance on inputs.

Be sure to keep up to date with the latest insights on practical sustainable farming – sign up to our e-newsletter, and join the conversation @agricology on social media.

Hope to see many of you soon!

Associated Agricology Partner Organisation(s):