Delegates heard how to tackle climate change at SAOS conference in Dunblane

PROF ALISON Hester from the James Hutton Institute

HOW Scottish farming can play its part in tackling climate change was a key theme at this year’s SAOS conference.

Attendees heard from a range of speakers on capturing carbon, increasing crop efficiency and running a farm on all renewables.

First to the podium was Mike Robinson, chief executive of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, on climate change and co-chair of the ‘Farming for 1.5°’. He set out the challenge ahead for Scottish farmers, telling the audience that it was no longer relevant to deny climate change and that every year government will set tighter and more ambitious targets for farming.

He said: “Some 18% of Scotland’s emissions comes from farming. Scotland can’t achieve its emissions targets without agriculture and land use and so Scotland needs agriculture to deliver.”

Mr Robinson said climate change was likely to lead to milder and wetter winters, with summers hotter and drier, adding that events which were expected one in 20 years would be more likely to occur one in three.

Whilst the changed climate might extend the growing season, or allow new crops to be grown in Scotland, he was in no doubt that the negatives outweighed the positives. But, the answer, he argued, ‘was not just about meat, it is not a one dimensional conversation’.

“We need to reduce overall emissions, not just the intensity of emissions. Land use change needs to be planned as opposed to left to the market,” he said.

Andrew Niven, an analyst from Scotland Food and Drink, talked through the latest trends in the sector.

Consumers were increasingly looking for heritage in their quality food experiences explained Mr Niven, saying: “You can’t move in London for menus with Herdwick lamb on them.”

It was not just animal breeds, but also heritage grains which are enjoying a revival, with old varieties of barley and rye in demand for alcohol and fine dining. “People are looking for a connection with the land and history,” said Mr Niven. “This is a real positive and opportunity for the Scottish sector.”

Consumer trends

Other trends in the sector included ‘wellness’ and ‘nutrition’, which Mr Niven describes as a driver for decades. Consumers are tying up diet with quality of life and look for this to deliver a longer and better quality of life.

This is feeding into a growing trend to eat local food when out of season through pickling and fermented products and the third trend Mr Niven explained to the audience introduced a new word to many, solastalgia – or a form of emotional, or

ANDREW NIVEN, and Drink

ADAM CHRISTIE managing director of Scottish Agronomy existential distress caused by environmental change.

Basically, Mr Niven explained people were becoming more environmentally conscious, but also pushed the onus onto the retailers and food producers to take action. Studies showed that consumers largely fell into three equally sized groups:

* The ‘eco-active’, who make lifestyle changes to support the environment.

* The ‘eco-considerers’, who will take an environmentally friendly option where there is little extra expense, or inconvenience;

* The ‘eco-dismissives’, who do not take environment into account when making consumer decisions.

To this end, some retailers were working on an ecoscoring system to explain the environmental impact of different foods and drinks.

The final trend, was the need for joy from consumers following Covid and financial difficulties. Many were looking to throw away the calorie counter and the Armageddon climate change worry and simply enjoy the simple pleasures of food and drink, whilst not feeling guilty about it. consumer trends analyst at Scotland Food

Professor Alison Hester, from the James Hutton Institute, talking about on the hydro glen project at Glensaugh, which aims supply renewable energy for the institute’s farm and associated houses for all heat, electric and fuel needs.

To do this, JHI is investing in wind turbines, battery storage and hydrogen to produce 1mW of energy with a cost of £6m for the project. The trial is to test what can be done and Ms Hester said that the future will need collaboration between farms to bring the price down to make such a system more financially attainable.

The plan is part of the Scottish Government’s target to produce 5mW of hydrogen by 2030 and 25mW by 2045, which could be focused for use by Scotland’s 900,000 rural dwellers.

Arable climate answers

Adam Christie, managing director of Scottish Agronomy, gave a whistle stop tour of its work connecting higher scientific institute research with growers on farm.

In the 35 plus years since SA’s formation, Mr Christie

MIKE ROBINSON chief executive of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society on Climate Change explained the co-op group had not sold a seed, a drill of fertiliser, or a litre of chemical, relying solely for income on farmers through advice and trials services.

One of the key aspects it had been looking at was the impact of reduced nitrogen and CO2 emissions. From trials it was discovered that applying N at 200kg/ha with a yield of 10t/h gave a total emissions equivalent of 0.36kg of CO2 equivalent per kg of grain. This is 400g less than if only 150kg of N was applied per ha, giving a yield of 7.4t/ha.

Mr Christie explained that chopping straw only increased carbon content by around 3% over 22 years, so to increase carbon in arable soils the future looked challenging, but not impossible.

“However, it is unlikely that in an arable situation that we will ever be able to return soils to their pre-agriculture levels of carbon sequestration, so the onus is on the producer to maximise the productivity of arable land to ensure that more marginal land does not need to be brought into production to feed the eight billion mouths now on the planet,” according to Mr Christie.

RICHARD NIMMONS of Carbon Capture Scotland

Trials of winter sown spring beans on the best land in Scotland showed that modern varieties, harvested in September were yielding between 6.55-7.72/t/ha, which at £240/t made it a profitable option in a rotation, or a useful source of home-produced protein.

Controlling pests and diseases was getting increasingly difficult, though, as more and more chemical solutions become either unavailable or have reduced efficacy. “It is difficult to go to growers and say in specific situations that we don’t have a solution to the problem,” said Mr Christie.

“We can no longer act like gods expecting all the answers from a can. However, I feel that variety selection, targeted pesticide use and non-chemical methods of control are going to play a bigger part in years to come.”

Capturing emissions

Finally, Richard and Ed Nimmons, of Carbon Capture Scotland, told the audience how they took carbon emissions and turned it into dry ice for companies such as Donald Russell, Ocado and Patisserie Valerie at their facility in Dumfries and Galloway.

The company, which receives no government support, harvests biogenic co2 from anaerobic digestors, incineration of biomass, distilling and brewing. It said, capturing the co2 could make cereal grown for brewing or distilling carbon negative as the gases captured during growing are not re-released into the atmosphere.

The next big step for the company is for large scale carbon capture pumping the emissions back undergound into previous oil and gas reserves. This, Richard Nimmons believed would open up the ability to capture 4mt of cO2 out of Scotland’s agricultural sector annual with 2000 associated jobs by 2040. Currently. they are on track to capture 50,000t by 2025 with 25 employees.