A Conversation with John Gilliland

In 2014, John was approached by Government in Belfast to build an expert working group looking at a Sustainable Agriculture Land Management Strategy. The extraordinary ambition of the resultant strategy was to baseline every single field, tree, and hedge in Northern Ireland. Despite concerns that it was too ambitious, three catchment pilots secured funding to put their strategy to the test. Led by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA),

and Agri-Food and Bioscience Institute (AFBI), the pilots secured 80% of farmers in the catchments to engage. 18 months later, farming practices were analysed, and an 80% behavioural change was recorded.

As a direct result, in Oct 2021, the Minister of Agriculture and Environment for Northern Ireland announced his desire to create a Soil Nutrient Health Scheme that would support all farmers in the region to measure their soil fertility and carbon on their land. In March 2022, the £45m Scheme was opened. It will take four years to complete, and Northern Ireland will notably be the first region in the world to audit every field, tree, and hedge, with the intention to do it every five years in order to effectively measure change with integrity. John explains how this approach created the right conditions for success.

“The right policies working in harmony with the right informed decisions by those who manage the land is the key to success – empowering farmers with knowledge about where they are now and about what improves best practice in land management. So, it is really important that we not only find practical solutions to drive positive behavioural change, but also help policy makers create good workable frameworks which rewards this change, to achieve better outcomes.”

Throughout his career, John has found that baselining soil fertility and carbon is at the heart of successful carbon management.

“Farmers want to know where they are today on their journey to net zero. To do that you must baseline both your greenhouse gas emissions and your carbon stocks, now. This informs them of where they are and empowers them to make better quality decisions where they need improvement. This is essential if we are to get more positive behavioural change. Using digital technologies such as aerial LiDAR surveys, alongside precision soil sampling and carbon calculator through tools such as Agrecalc, we better inform them on the uniqueness of the land they manage. We will give them quality detail they have never seen before in areas such as soil health and fertility, soil carbon, tree carbon, run-off risk maps, and how they are all interconnected, to reveal a more complete picture of their journey ahead.”

“Most Farmers are inspired by the quality of information they get, which allows them to make better quality decisions. A win for them and a win for the environment, at the same time. Farmers are then changing their behaviour because we have invested in their knowledge needs, rather than telling them what to do. One size does not fit all. There are no silver bullets anymore and we need policies and regulations, based on good science which unshackles farmers and allows them to manage their land in a manner that is fitting to their environment and their business.”

“As a farmer and a former President of the Ulster Farmers Union, I spent my life talking with farmers. In 2020, with six other farmers in Northern Ireland, we began a project to take seven farms on the journey towards net zero. The aim was to leverage knowledge from Devenish Nutrition’s research farm, The Lands at Dowth, onto farms with different enterprises, climates, and soil types. We started by creating baselines of emissions and carbon stocks, and their variations within a farm, and between different farms. The project is called ARC Zero.”

Throughout ARC Zero, they were helped several times by using Agrecalc. The first was that it informed each farmer what their current emissions are and where they were coming from. Secondly, was the ability of using the benchmarking embedded within it. When using the carbon calculator, the farmers were able to see where they were in comparison to their peers when they dissected their businesses, allowing them to speedily identify issues and address them.

“If we really want farming and the land-based sector to deliver for society, it is essential that we measure, report, and verify our journey on a regular basis and design a policy framework where farmers get paid to deliver for what society needs. We must help them to manage their land, not dictate how they use their land. The key is to educate, inform and empower decision making with data and information, create a baseline and then revisit that baseline on a regular basis. Only then will you have a journey that is robust, credible, and transparent, and one we are proud to communicate to all concerned.”

In the ARC Zero project, how carbon stocks were digitally measured and analysed was unprecedented. In return, the project intends to support further development of Agrecalc’s sequestration module, when those carbon baselines are remeasured, using the resultant data to help take the carbon module to the next level.

“My passion for Agrecalc is somewhat biased, as I have been with it since its beginning, having helped to secure the initial funding for its construction from the SRUC Board when I was a non-executive Director. It has several key things important to anyone looking at a lifecycle assessment calculator. Firstly, its accredited. Secondly, it does the calculations on a whole farm basis – that is what the legal entity is. Targets will eventually be set on the legal entity, and Agrecalc gets that. Thirdly, it is particularly good on livestock farming – and we have a lot of livestock in Ireland, just as in Scotland. Finally, it has an extraordinary science organisation behind it in relationship to SRUC. The pleasure of our ARC Zero journey is that we now know the gross emissions, gross sequestrations, and net emissions on those farms and where they are on their journey to net zero.”

John also reminds us that the net zero target mooted by Governments relates to the mean of the industry, rather than every business individually reaching net zero.

“It is not about everyone getting to net zero - some will fly, and some will struggle. We should allow flexibility between farms and create frameworks around that to ensure collective success. We also need to be clear that net zero is not about zero emissions. The definition of net zero is when all of your emissions are equal to all of your additional carbon stocks, on an annual basis. That is not widely understood by people. It is not about zero emissions and that often surprises people.”

The success of the ARC Zero project is its systems-based approach, resting on two processes. Firstly, baselining. Secondly measurement, and management. Finally, re-doing the baseline. John found that this gave complete transparency, informing them of where things were working well or where they could be improved. He said,

“Across the ARC Zero project farms, I am proud to say that our net farm carbon positions range from 25% of the journey to net zero to my own farm which is actually 3% beyond net zero today. If I add in my renewables and displacement of fossil fuel energy – I am 560% beyond net zero today. So, I am really passionate that it is absolutely achievable, when we are allowed to use all the tools in our toolbox, including carbon sequestration and on farm renewables.”