A major four-year study on English arable farms has found that agroecological practices can boost biodiversity and improve certain crop yields — but remain economically unviable without public support.
Conducted across 17 commercial farms, the research examined how reducing reliance on agrochemicals through ecological interventions—such as wildflower margins, cover crops, and soil enrichment — could restore nature’s regulating services like pollination and pest control, according to a press reease.
Three systems were tested: conventional “business-as-usual” (BAU); an “Enhancing Ecosystem Services” (Enhancing-ES) model with margins and cover crops; and a more intensive “Maximising-ES” system that added organic matter and in-field strips to attract beneficial insects directly into crop areas.
The ecological benefits were clear. The Maximising-ES system delivered the highest soil carbon gains, and both alternative systems saw increases in earthworms, pollinators, and natural pest predators. Pollination and pest control improved markedly, while pest snail biomass declined under ecological management.
Some yields, including cereals and oilseed rape, also increased. Yet the financial outcomes were mixed. Higher yields did not offset the land removed from production or the costs of implementing nature-friendly practices. Only the mid-level Enhancing-ES system reached break-even—and only with agri-environmental subsidies.
UKCEH ecologist Dr Ben Woodcock, who led the study, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, explained, “Without the introduction of new financial incentives, many farmers will be deterred from adopting agroecological farming practices and systems. This could leave them locked into high input, intensive farming systems and more exposed to the impacts of pesticide resistance, declining soil health and climate change.
Trialling Agroecological Methods
Scientists at UKCEH and Rothamsted worked with farmers to co-develop the trials using simple management practices within three different agricultural systems on each of the farms:
1) Business-as-usual – typical intensive agriculture and no nature-friendly farming.
2) An ‘enhanced’ ecological farming system which involved planting wildflower field margins to provide habitat for bees, beetles and spiders, and sowing overwinter cover crops to capture carbon and retain nutrients in the soil.
3) A ‘maximised’ ecological system which added to the enhanced system by also planting in-field strips of wildflowers – ‘stripey fields’ – to provide ‘runways’ for beneficial insects to get further into crops, and the addition of organic matter in the form of farmyard manure to improve soil health.
Benefits for Farmers and Nature
The study found that both the enhanced and maximised agroecological systems supported higher populations of earthworms, pollinators such as bees and hoverflies, and natural predators like ladybirds, lacewings, and spiders. These ecological improvements helped reduce pest species — including aphids and snails — and increased seed set and yields in flowering crops like oilseed rape.
Healthier soils, improved pollination, and stronger natural pest control also contributed to greater soil carbon levels and higher overall crop yields on the cultivated areas.
Financially, the enhanced system proved as profitable as conventional intensive farming—but only with support from agri-environmental subsidies. While the more ambitious maximised system delivered greater gains in biodiversity, soil carbon, and yields, it remained less profitable without additional support. However, on some farms—particularly mixed operations with existing access to manure—these added costs could be more easily absorbed.
“While farmers run businesses that need to be profitable, there is an increasing awareness that more sustainable systems can help ‘future-proof’ their farms in terms of soil health, less reliance on pesticides and climate change, said Woodcock.
“Agroecological methods are good for biodiversity, food security and, in the long-term, provide more secure farm incomes but habitats can take several years to establish, so agri-environment subsidies are essential to helping farmers transition to these more sustainable systems.”
The study authors say demonstrating the effectiveness of agroecological practices to farmers could be a critical step breaking farmers free from ‘intensification traps’.
Rothamsted’s Professor Jonathan Storkey, one of the co-authors, said: “This study confirmed that managing land on farms for wildlife is not in direct conflict with food security but can support sustainable production by increasing yields and reducing pest pressure. These ‘ecosystem services’ could potentially substitute for chemical fertilisers and pesticides which negatively impact the environment.
“However, our analysis has shown that realising these benefits will require additional support for farm businesses that currently operate on very narrow profit margins. As input costs increase, however, these agroecological approaches may become more attractive.”
The post Greener Fields, Richer Soils: Agroecology Proves Its Value appeared first on Seed World.