Unilever at the start of 2024 launched its first regenerative agriculture programme in the UK. The project brings together Unilever and two farming cooperatives, the English Mustard Growers and Norfolk Mint Growers, with a group of technical and academic partners, Farmacy and National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB). Designed to address the unique challenges and needs of these crops and landscapes, regenerative agriculture practices new to these farms

will be trialled including the use of low carbon fertiliser, crop nutrition strategies, planting of cover and companion crops to reduce pesticides use, new digital water irrigation scheduling systems and reduced cultivation.

 

Unilever has worked with the farms to collect and establish baseline data and created a framework to measure the impact these practices will have over four-years, collecting data on soil health, fertiliser use, biodiversity, water use efficiency

and carbon reductions as well as impact on yields and farm profitability. Unilever is also funding the development of new technologies to improve data collection on farms, including a device that will be able to measure carbon levels in soil in situ.

 

Michael Sly, Chairman of the English Mustard Growers Limited said, “As with all farmers, we are facing the challenges of climate change directly on our land. Alongside our English Mustard Growers Group, we’re on the journey with Unilever and NIAB to integrate regenerative agriculture practices that include strong measurement processes, to improve our yield, improve the soil health, and maintain the flavour of a fantastic product alongside that.”