Get a biodiversity survey done on your farm and contribute to research into biodiversity and productivity of agroecological farms

[CSA Network UK]

Hello everyone,

I’ve received the email below asking for agroecological farms interested in taking part in a research project on the biodiversity and productivity of agroecological systems. It looks like a very robust and interesting study, which is all outlined below.

In exchange for your time they’ll give you a biodiversity survey of your own farm and they’ve also agreed to share the findings of their research with the network. Hopefully their findings should help demonstrate the great work you’re all doing contributing to biodiversity while also being highly productive.

If you’re interested in participating you can get in touch with Rosina Costello (rosina....@gmail.com) directly and please let me know if you get involved as its always interesting to know what research is going on about CSAs so we can use the results to help make a stronger case for supporting community supported agriculture.

Best,

Page Dykstra

CSA Network UK Coordinator 

csanet...@gmail.com

m: 07869630376

www.communitysupportedagriculture.org.uk

@CSANetwork

Please excuse any delay in responding, I work two days a week for CSA Network, usually Tuesday and Friday.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rosina Costello <rosina....@gmail.com>

Subject: Request for farm contacts to measure the biodiversity and productivity data of polyculture farming systems

Date: 12 June 2019 at 11:06:05 BST

To: csanet...@gmail.com

Cc: Barbara Smith <barbaras...@gmail.com>, GATHORNE-HARDY Alfy <a.gathor...@ed.ac.uk>

Dear Page,

 

I am a student from the University of Edinburgh, working on a NERC funded research project between Edinburgh University (supervised by Alfred Gathorne-Hardy) and CAWR, Coventry University (with Barbara Smith) which aims to investigate how different farming practices can affect biodiversity and yield. Gareth Davies kindly suggested we contact you.

 

I am writing to ask if you know of any farms who would be willing to let myself and another student visit their farm over approximately a two day period over the coming weeks to collect data for this project. In return, we would be able to offer a biodiversity report to each farm from our findings.

 

Summary of project:

Our research questions the validity of the Land Sparing/Land Sharing (LSS) debate, which suggests that there is a trade-off between output and biodiversity: Land Sharing systems are low output, extensive farming systems where crops and biodiversity can co-exist; Land Sparing systems are high output, intensive farming systems that support minimal biodiversity on site but through high local production can spare other sites (i.e. rainforests) for nature.

 

We think that this is a false dichotomy. Instead we hypothesise that alternative agroecological production systems can provide higher yields than conventional-intensive systems, and higher biodiversity than conventional-organic, reframing the LSS debate.

 

However, there is no existing data which can be used to test this hypothesis. This project – with your help – aims to fill this knowledge gap.

 

Criteria:

The farms we wish to collect data on must reach the following criteria:

1)     Minimum 7 crops per acre at one time (crops defined by species not by variety).

2)     Follow organic farming principles, i.e. no synthetic pesticides.

 

Farms do not have to follow any specific farming methodology (i.e. permaculture, agroecology, sustainable intensification etc.), as long as they fulfil the above criteria (polycropping).

 

Data collection and logistics:

We will collect data on earthworm biomass, bee diversity, ground beetle diversity and botanical diversity, as these are all good indicators of biodiversity on a broader scale. No damage to any crops would take place due to the sampling.

 

In addition, we would very much like to obtain yield information from the farms to be able to analyse and compare productivity on each, and relate this to biodiversity. All data would be confidential and all data would be anonymous in any reports.

 

Weather dependent, we aim to collect the data over a two day period, at some point in the time frame: 24^th June – 14^th July.

 

If there are any farms willing to take part in this research project who are available in the above time frame, we would be delighted to hear of them or be given their contact details. As I said above, we would provide each farm with the biodiversity survey results from their farm, as well as a copy of the final report for all farms.

 

Please do send me a email or give me a ring if you have any questions. I appreciate that this is a busy time for you and your colleagues!

 

Kind regards and many thanks in advance,

 

Rosina Costello

 

P.S. I have attached the full proposal of the project for your interest. I will follow this up in the next few days, I hope this is ok.

 

07507111440, rosina....@gmail.com