Invitation to submit articles to a special issue of Land

SoilCare is curating a special issue of Land, entitled: "Soil Improving Cropping Systems for Sustainable and Profitable Farming in Europe."

In this Special Issue, we aim to compile scientific findings on soil-improving cropping systems (SICS) based on field experiments, including the study of policy, upscaling and dissemination. We invite papers focussing on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• best practices for alleviating soil threats and improving soil quality based on long and short term experiments;
• methodologies for comparing SICS across study-sites and countries;
• policy development, upscaling of possible solutions, stakeholder involvement and dissemination of SICS.

SoilCare featured in Research∗eu magazine & CORDIS results pack

The SoilCare project is described in a special feature of the Research^∗eu magazine and in the CORDIS Results Pack on Soil Health.  The SoilCare article 'Tailored solutions for soil-preserving agriculture across Europe', is available to read in the CORDIS Results Pack on Soil Health in 12 different languages.

Deep-rooting grass cultivars could contribute to flood risk management

Introducing grass leys into arable rotations has the potential to improve soil structure and organic matter. This has benefits to the arable rotation, but can also increase water infiltration rates during storms, with resulting benefits in terms of flood risk management at the catchment scale. Reduced runoff from agricultural catchments can also result in improved water quality and aquatic ecology.