Farming the fens: Innovation for resilience

Lowland peat soils support some of the most productive farming systems in the country but are also responsible for a significant proportion of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers working these soils face growing pressure to reduce emissions and restore peat, while maintaining profitable food production. Join us at G's Norfolk Farms in Wissington, for a farm walk to see innovative peatland farming approaches in practice and engage with local farmers and advisors in discussion on how to balance emissions reduction, soil health and farm profitability.

This event is a collaboration between Soil Association and Ocado's Agroecology at Scale programme, Fenland SOIL and the NBSoil project.

What to expect

The core farm at G's Norfolk Farms is 1200 ha of ring fenced, deep peat located in Wissington, Norfolk. Through a presentation and farm walk, Callum Bennet, Technical and Innovation Manager at G’s Norfolk and Feltwell Growers, will introduce different management practices and explain the results from water management based trials. The farms have completed 2 years of paludiculture trials at 20cm water table, mostly focussed on salad crops with trials on chinese leaf, mini romaine lettuce and celery. They have also trialled farming at water tables of around 45cm with radishes, lettuce and celery. Both trials have collected extensive yield and carbon data with a goal of evaluating the opportunities and drawbacks of raising water tables. The farms make use of a sub-irrigation system, utilising the drainage under the fields and a network of dams to control water tables under the crop, making them a great trial site for this work.

We will also be joined by Lucy Harler, Future Farming Manager - G’s Fresh. Lucy supports farming colleagues in multiple countries across 14,000Ha of salads and vegetables in their transition to regenerative practices. G's Fresh have a group strategic objective to be farming regeneratively across all farming sites by 2030 in an effort to improve soil health, product quality, biodiversity and business resilience whilst making meaningful reductions in carbon footprint. We will also hear from Christian Kielinger, Project Manager at Fenland SOIL, who oversees the development of evidence-based greenhouse gas emissions data for peat soils and leads the use of landscape opportunity mapping to support practical, sustainable land management decisions that balance climate mitigation with profitable farming.

A farmer panel session and Q&A will bring together practical experiences and challenges from local growers trialling sub‑irrigation, water‑table management and regenerative approaches at scale, helping to shape a more sustainable and resilient future for farming on the Fens.

The day will be chaired by Josiah Judson, Farming Advisor at the Soil Association. The event is hosted in collaboration with NBSoil: a Soil Mission Horizon project training new advisers in deploying six rigorously-tested nature-based methods – paludiculture, blue-green infrastructure, cover crops, organic fertiliser, bioremediation and forest diversification – to address critical soil threats.

The event is free to attend and will include refreshments and a light lunch.

Agenda - TBC

10.30am - Arrival, welcome and refreshments

11.00am - Introduction

11.15am - Farm walk

12.45pm - Lunch

1.30pm - Presentations

2.00pm - Farmer panel & Q&A

3.00pm - Close

Who should attend

This event will be of particular interest to farmers and advisors working on or supporting farming on lowland peat, particularly the Fens. This is a fantastic opportunity to see a commercial-scale peatland vegetable farm who are exploring practical options for reducing emissions and improving soil resilience.

This event follows on from the Farming the Fens: Building resilient peatland systems webinar hosted in April. You can watch the recording here: Farming the Fens: Building resilient peatland systems.

Thank you to Christian Kielinger and Fenland SOIL for supporting this event series.