Tir Afon - Farm Soil Health

Tender description

Project Background Tir Afon is a large landscape scale project between National Trust, Natural Resources Wales, Conwy County Borough Council and Foelas Estate covering 3% of the area of Wales. Its vision is to provide benefits to the communities and wildlife of the Upper Conwy catchment by working towards a cleaner and healthier environment. Through integrated collaboration with partners, landowners and communities in Upper Conwy we will provide long term benefits in the project area and downstream. We will connect communities to the heritage of the Upper Conwy by providing opportunities for people to enjoy, understand and care for the land and the rivers, bridging the gap between health and the environment. We aim to influence policy and decision-making beyond the catchment, and to improve water and soil health management thus increasing carbon storage, supporting sustainable farming and forestry practice. We will also protect and connect habitats and restore biodiversity, and in the headwaters, we will reinstate natural function and processes to provide flood, drought and fire mitigation to ensure climate change resilient Wales. 1. Aims 1.1 Reduce agricultural pollution of the sub-catchments in the Upper Conwy. Help farmers prepare for the nutrient management requirements of the new Agricultural Pollution (Wales) Regulations 2021 and in doing so, open a conversation on nature friendly farming and sustainable stocking levels. 1.2 Promote and encourage good soil health by encouraging use of crops that are more drought & flood resilient and encourage farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture practices to deliver multiple benefits. These include measures to tackle compaction, increase soil storage (carbon) and infiltration capacity (water), increase plant diversity that in turn supports pollinators. 2. Outputs Required Soil health assessments are to be completed at a total of 30 farms within the project area – please see Annex 1. The project team will provide a list of the 30 farms. 2.1 Contractor to produce a whole farm risk map to Agri Pollution regulations standard for each farm. This must be completed by 31st January 2022. 2.2 Contractor to produce report on soil condition and soil chemistry of the 5 highest risk fields as identified in the risk map. These are to be agreed between contractor and farmer. All field records presented in tabular and map form with an interpretation of results and recommended action plan to address soil condition and chemistry issues (P would be covered in the Nutrient Management Plan, below) with an assessment of cost savings/financial benefits. This must be completed by 30th November 2022. 2.3 Contractor to produce a Nutrient Management Plan for the 5 fields in collaboration with the farmer. This should be presented in a useable format for the farmer; the aim being to provide a working plan that informs management decisions and changes farming practices across the 5 fields. This must be completed by 30th November 2022. 2.4 Contractor to partake in a ‘peer-to-peer’ learning day – to be organised with Tir Afon project team during summer 2022 of Tir Afon project. All information to be sent to the farmer and copied to the Tir Afon project in a suitable format. A summary of key findings will also need to be submitted by 30th November 2022. For further details please see the technical specification.