{"id":107964,"date":"2024-01-17T13:22:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T13:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/?p=107964"},"modified":"2024-02-22T14:19:28","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T14:19:28","slug":"how-bgs-is-helping-the-farming-sector-of-great-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/news\/how-bgs-is-helping-the-farming-sector-of-great-britain\/","title":{"rendered":"How BGS is helping the farming sector of Great Britain\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Rural soils make up 85\u202fper cent of the land area of the UK<\/a>, with agricultural land use occupying the vast majority of that space. In England, around 70\u202fper cent of the total land area is used for agriculture<\/a>. Soils enable food production and livestock grazing, in addition to other essential ecosystem services such as carbon or water storage.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soil parent materials are one of five soil-forming factors and are derived from the weathering of underlying rocks and deposits. Understanding a soil\u2019s parent material is useful when assessing different types of environmental and soil measurements as it strongly influences a soil\u2019s texture, drainage characteristics, baseline chemistry and depth and profile structure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the BGS Soil Parent Material Model? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The BGS Soil Parent Material Model<\/a> provides information to better understand soil and subsoil characteristics across Great Britain. It includes information on:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n