Introducing FAB Farmers

The Soil Association is one of the UK partners in an exciting new project designed to support farmers to transition towards more agroecological practices on their farms. The project aims to assist farmers to increase on-farm efficiency and reduce their reliance on external inputs by increasing the functional agricultural biodiversity (FAB) on their farms. One example of this could be attracting beneficial pest-eating insects by planting infield wildflower strips within cereal crops. Another could be converting monoculture livestock pasture to diverse herbal leys which provide farm-grown fodder at the same time as building soil health.  

The Soil Association will assist farmers in identifying and adopting relevant practices such as these from the FAB suite of practices.  We will be working alongside the Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit (FCCT); the National Trust and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH). The project will focus on three pilot regions at first: The South West of England, Pembrokeshire and the East of England.

The aim is to set up learning networks of farmers across the three pilot regions over the next few months. Anyone can join. All you need is an interest in adopting FAB farming practices on your farm and for your farm to be located within the pilot regions. Involvement is completely free as there is secured funding from Interregional North West Europe Programme to carry out this project over the next five years. 

If you are interested to find out more on how you can get involved, please contact Liz Bowles lbowles@soilassociation.org for more details.