A Shortlisting Framework for Crop Diversification in the United Kingdom

Ebrahim Jahanshiri (), Sayed Azam-Ali, Peter J. Gregory and Eranga M. Wimalasiri
Additional contact information
Ebrahim Jahanshiri: Crops for the Future UK, National Institute of Agricultural Botany, 93 Lawrence Weaver Road, Cambridge CB3 0LG, UK
Sayed Azam-Ali: Crops for the Future UK, National Institute of Agricultural Botany, 93 Lawrence Weaver Road, Cambridge CB3 0LG, UK
Peter J. Gregory: Crops for the Future UK, National Institute of Agricultural Botany, 93 Lawrence Weaver Road, Cambridge CB3 0LG, UK
Eranga M. Wimalasiri: Crops for the Future UK, National Institute of Agricultural Botany, 93 Lawrence Weaver Road, Cambridge CB3 0LG, UK

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-29

Abstract: We present a systematic framework for nationwide crop suitability assessment within the UK to improve the resilience in cropping systems and nutrition security of the UK population. An initial suitability analysis was performed using data from 1842 crops at 2862 grid locations within the UK, using climate (temperature and rainfall) and soil (pH, depth, and texture) data from the UK Met Office and British Geological Survey. In the second phase, additional qualitative and quantitative data are collected on 56 crops with the highest pedoclimatic suitability and coverage across the UK. An exercise was conducted on crops within each category using a systematic ranking methodology that shortlists crops with high value across a multitude of traits. Crops were ranked based on their nutritional value (macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals) and on adaptive (resistance to waterlogging/flood, frost, shade, pest, weed, and diseases and suitability in poor soils) and physiological traits (water-use efficiency and yield). Other characteristics such as the number of special uses, available germplasm through the number of institutions working on the crops, and production knowledge were considered in shortlisting. The shortlisted crops in each category are bulbous barley (cereal), colonial bentgrass (fodder), Russian wildrye (forage), sea buckthorn (fruit), blue lupin (legume), shoestring acacia (nut), ochrus vetch (vegetable), spear wattle (industrial), scallion (medicinal), and velvet bentgrass (ornamental/landscape). These crops were identified as suitable crops that can be adopted in the UK. We further discuss steps in mainstreaming these and other potential crops based on a systematic framework that takes into account local farming system issues, land suitability, and crop performance modelling at the field scale across the UK.

Keywords: climate change adaptation; underutilised crops; pedoclimate analysis; land evaluation; nutrition security (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/4/787/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/4/787/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:787-:d:1111096

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().