Research looking for new ways to make land pay

“Making use of land that is capable of absorbing flood water would be of considerable value to insurers, as it would save them huge sums,” said Professor Andy Whitmore, deputy director of the Centre for Bioenergy and Climate Change at Rothamsted.

“I’m not sure how we would go about developing the idea at this stage, so it’s probably worth looking at other ideas that we have tried. It’s possible to give land extra value by growing two crops in a field at the same time.

“We have shown that intercropping wheat and beans, for example, can enhance profit, because the amount of nitrogen required to growing the wheat can be reduced while the yield rises. This is because the beans fix nitrogen from the atmosphere to benefit the wheat.

“In trials, profit from growing the two crops together has been shown to be as much as £900/ha, but at the moment the bakers and brewers are against the concept, because of a perceived risk of impurities.”

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