Sustainable Soils and Crops

We focus our research and development on improved understanding of the roles of crops, soils, and their interactions, to support sustainable crop production systems in the UK and internationally. Delivering sufficient crops—of appropriate nutritional quality—whilst actively supporting environmental co-benefits from agriculture, requires us to position our research through a wider Agri-Food System lens. Our research can then have maximum impact to benefit society.

Our Sustainable Soils and Crops (SSC) Strategic Area has internationally renowned expertise in both crop and soil sciences. Our crop science researchers span discovery to applied science, including world-leading teams working on: (i) plant development and physiology, (ii) crop nutritional biochemistry, and (iii) above- and below-ground trait phenotyping to support crop improvement programmes. Our soil science researchers include biologists, physicists, and chemists, with particular strengths in (i) soil health, (ii) soil microbiology, (iii) soil-root interactions, and (iv) soil carbon-nutrient cycling. Linkages across the SSC Strategic Area and beyond are supported by system agronomists, modellers, analytical chemists, and food system scientists with expertise in production, quality, socio-economic, and metrics linked to environmental change.

We sustain many partnerships with end-users and co-producers of our R&D, both nationally and internationally. These include farmer networks, food processors, the nutrition-health sector, government departments, small- and medium sized companies (SMEs), corporates, universities and other research organisations, and charitable/philanthropic groups.