SOWAP Home Page

SOWAP (the Soil and Water Protection project) represents a collaborative attempt by industry, NGOs, academic institutions and farmers to address the environmental, economic and social concerns arising from the practice of conventional agriculture and cultivations. Working in the UK, Belgium and Hungary between 2003 and 2006, SOWAP has tested and demonstrated a range of site-specific soil management methods, based on the concept of Conservation Tillage. It looked at the economics of the operations as well as effects on soil erosion and fertiliser run-off. Birds, earthworms and aquatic invertebrates are some of the biodiversity indicators the project measured.

SOWAP has shown that by reducing soil disturbance and covering the soil with crop residue, conservation tillage can protect our precious soil resource by dramatically reducing erosion. Conservation tillage benefits above and below-ground Biodiversity such as birds and earthworms by providing improved food resources and habitat. Water Quality is also improved, since run-off from fields with less cultivations and soil movement contains lower levels of nutrients and sediment. As a result, the aquatic invertebrate and plant life in conservation tillage catchments can be enriched.

The first phase of SOWAP and the field work were completed by September 2006, and the full scientific report was approved by EU-LIFE in 2007.

See the Final Results pages of the website for the SOWAP summary reports. These cover all the main topics investigated by SOWAP – soil and water protection, biodiversity, aquatic ecology, costs and yields, and give overall summary of the lessons learnt on these farms during the project.

Conservation Agriculture Booklet