Improving soil health in the UK: why a microbial approach is indispensable in attaining sustainable soils

Abstract

Current agricultural approaches in the UK—and across much of the world—are unsustainable, particularly due to their impacts on soil health. With evidence already showing diminishing returns in productivity, which are only predicted to get worse with the climate crisis, restoring the health of soils and soil-dwelling microbes is an essential prerequisite for a thriving planet. This report proposes taking a new approach to soil health based on the soil microbiome. The complex community of soil microbes and their interactions are known to underpin soil health and consequently food security, resilience to climate change, global health, biodiversity and more. As such, an approach that holistically takes soil into account is needed, rather than the siloed approaches used to date. This report therefore highlights the opportunity to take a microbiome approach to soil and how such an approach could be implemented in the UK going forward, whilst also recommending microbial solutions that can be deployed to improve the UK's soils now.