UK has only 40 years of fertile soil left, warns Gove

‘Countries can withstand wars, even leaving the EU, but no country can withstand the loss of its soil’

THE UK has only 40 years of fertile crop-growing left because intensive farming is “cutting the ground from beneath our feet”, Michael Gove has said.

The Environment Secretary said heavy farm machinery and overuse of chemicals was boosting short-term productivity but would render large tracts of soil infertile in a generation.

At the parliamentary launch of the Sustainable Soils Association (SSA), a group formed to tackle the issue, Mr Gove said Britain had encouraged types of farming which “damaged the earth”. He said: “Countries can withstand coups d’état, wars and conflict, even leaving the EU, but no country can withstand the loss of its soil and fertility.

“If you have heavy machines churning the soil and impacting it, if you drench it in chemicals, that improves yields but in the long term undercuts the future fertility of the soil. You can increase yields year-on-year but ultimately you are cutting the ground away from beneath your own feet.”

Mr Gove said farmers needed to be given incentives to tackle soil fertility loss and the decline in biodiversity.

Soil fertility decline occurs when the nutrient requirements of a crop are met from soil reserves, meaning more nutrients are being removed from the earth over time than are introduced. This eventually results in a reduction of crop growth and yield

♦ The European Parliament has voted to ban the world’s most popular weedkiller by 2022, as the European Commission suggested renewing the licence for the controversial herbicide for a shorter than usual period after pressure from campaigners.

The Commission had originally proposed renewing the EU licence for glyphosate, which some claim causes cancer, for 10 years but cut that to five to seven years after the non-binding vote.