Location
Adeney Yard, Harper Adams University Future Farm, Shropshire
Project partners
Partners - Harper Adams University
The PIP team is inter-disciplinary and includes: Professor Jim Monaghan (PIP Chair, crops), Mr Scott Kirby (Executive Project and Programme Consultant, Farm & Sustainability), Dr Simon Jeffery (soil ecology) , Professor Karl Behrendt (agri-tech economic modelling), Dr Iona Huang (socio-economics), Dr Julia Casperd (agriculture and environment), Dr Lucy Crockford (soil and water management), Mr David White (engineering).
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Contact - Julia Casperd - PIP Chair, crops
Email: jcasperd@harper-adams.ac.uk
Mobile: 07375 862004
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Partner - UKCEH
UKCEH provides valuable support and collaborative links for our research
Partner - LEAF
LEAF will inform and facilitate the development of the LEAF Marque Standard for sustainable products from paludiculture farming systems
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The PIP also has also established important collaborative links with the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Severn Trent, the School of Sustainable Food and Farming, North Shropshire Farmer cluster and Agri-EPI Centre.
Project Overview
The project aims are to:
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Apply scientific evidence to overcome barriers to paludiculture.
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Establish baseline data, refine rewetting methods, and assess ecological responses.
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Inform peatland policy and debate through evidence-based insights.
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Provide a resource for education and research.
Research - Key achievements:
The PIP project set up an experimental field site in a degraded peat field previously used for conventional crop production at Harper Adams University Future Farm, where we can study
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GHG emissions from rewetted peat soils under managed conditions i.e. overhead watering, sub-surface wetting;
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Crop growth in ‘wetter farming’ scenarios i.e. SFI CSW19.
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The experimental cells are bunded by clay-filled trenches (sourced from a nearby quarry) with water being supplied by an adjacent waterway with a tipping weir that can be supplemented with a reservoir (Figure 1).
Headlines
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The site has undergone significant additional hydrological characterisation to assess its suitability for rewetting as part of the LAPWDP Patchy Peat Solutions Project. The aim of this is to explore farm business opportunities on rewetted lowland agricultural peat.
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It is hosting the LP3 crop trials with Winter Wheat and Reed Canary Grass being grown in the crop cells.
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During the spring/summer 2025 drought, COâ‚‚ emissions were substantially reduced in surface irrigation compared to controls (Fig. 2a). Sub-surface irrigation treatments showed a slight reduction in CO2 emissions compared to control, despite achieving lower soil moisture levels than initially targeted. This raises an important question regarding the minimum rewetting threshold required to achieve significant COâ‚‚ emission reductions from peat soils, which warrants further investigation.
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Despite elevated water tables, substantial CHâ‚„ production was not observed. However, there was a different reduction of CH4 oxidation potential in soils. Under typical aerobic soil conditions, methanotrophic bacteria consume atmospheric CHâ‚„ that diffuses into the soil profile. This atmospheric CHâ‚„ sink function was effectively eliminated under surface irrigation treatments. No significant difference in CHâ‚„ emissions was observed between sub-surface irrigation and control treatments (Fig. 2b).
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A moderate increase in Nâ‚‚O emissions was observed in the surface irrigation treatment (Fig. 2c). Moderately waterlogged/ fluctuating soil conditions are known to stimulate Nâ‚‚O production through denitrification processes. Elevated soil temperatures during the summer months likely exacerbated this effect by increasing microbial activity.
Figure 2. Preliminary data showing cumulative GHG emissions from early June to early August 2025.
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The GHG cells have shown that wetting peat soils with surface irrigation has been more effective at suppressing GHG emissions during the spring/summer 2025 drought (Table 1.).
Table 1: Soil C balance with different experimental treatments.
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N2O emissions in response to N fertilisation are currently being investigated. Agricultural utilisation of peat soils needs nutrients replacement to compensate for crop removal during successive harvest cycles. Small quadrants fertilisation trials were established, in which N fertiliser was applied to oilseed rape, with subsequent monitoring of GHG gases.
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A socio-economic study concluded in 2025 that whilst peatland restoration can benefit C sequestration and flood mitigation, along with biodiversity and cultural benefits, paludiculture cropping options are generally less profitable than commercial arable crops requiring financial incentives to drive the take up of wetter farming systems.
Knowledge Exchange and Teaching:
The PIP project site has become a focus for KE and teaching with the primary objective of engaging farmers and stakeholders in discussions around paludiculture. This has been achieved with a suite of conferences/symposia and workshops which have explored the high value crops that might be appropriate within a wetter farming system and the engineering solutions which may be needed.
Conclusions, recommendations and next steps
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Rewetting degraded peat soils is not a quick fix, and financial support is needed for land managers.
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Surface irrigation effectively supresses CO2 emissions, without significant trades offs against CH4 emissions in terms of global warming potentials.
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Surface wetting demonstrated 4-fold lower CO2e compared to control. This approach requires a lower volume of water than sub-surface wetting and enables a better water table management through rapid on/off control, compared to manual drain management, which can facilitate farmer access to their peat fields with heavy machinery at harvest.
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Paludiculture / wetter farming trials are long-term ventures as the changes will need to be assessed over a range of seasons.
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The impact of fertiliser application on Global Warming Potential remains to be investigated.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge our funders Natural England (PEF) and Severn Trent for supporting this project, and our consortium partners—LEAF, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology—for their invaluable contributions.
