The environmental impact of growing sugar beet - British Sugar's submission to DEFRA - 2002

1. Sustainable Crop Production >>
2. Crop Competitiveness >>
3. Contribution to the Environment, Biodiversity and Bird Life >>
4. Integrated Pest Management >>
5. Fertiliser Application and Nitrates Strategy >>
6. Environmental Erosion >>
7. Food Safety and Traceability >>
8. Soil Protection >>
9. Organic Beet Production >>
10. Summary >>
11. Recommendations for the Future >>

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1. Sustainable Crop Production

Industry Wide Crop Production Objectives

Crop production objectives have been designed to provide a balance between competitiveness, environment and social standards. The objectives currently in force include:

• Competitive crop production
• Reduced crop inputs (especially pesticides and nitrogen)
• Environmental impacts (including biodiversity and bird life)
• Food safety and traceability
• Environmental recycling of all co-products produced by the industry
• Crop quality

These objectives form part of a rolling 5-year strategy for crop production and research, which is reviewed each year by a joint industry Board (see below). The objectives are then widely disseminated throughout the industry to provide clarity of direction.

An Integrated Industry

The UK beet sugar industry is unusual in being highly integrated from seed to finished products.

In terms of crop production, all the main participants work closely together to pursue the industry objectives and to identify best and worst practices with growers. Leading groups in this operation, and what they have to offer, are as follows.

• The NFU, which represents all growers contractually and has wide ranging trade and political links throughout the country.
• British Sugar, whose extension service with growers and detailed technical data base enables improvement practices to be pursued at the level of individual growers.
• The British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO), the joint industry research Board which directs, co-ordinates and funds research work on sugar beet.
• IACR Broom's Barn, the R&D centre for excellence for the industry which also manages a research data base and extension facilities.
• National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), Morley Research Centre and other specialist research centres.
• Independent consultants, whose influence with the crop has become increasingly important in recent years and who work closely with the co-ordinating groups above.
• Trade suppliers and services, including seed companies, agrochemical suppliers, machinery manufacturers and the haulage industry.

The close co-ordination of all these groups brings a remarkable degree of cohesion throughout the industry, and enables improved practices (both for productivity and environment) to be introduced with growers at a much faster rate than would normally be expected for such a large and complex sector.

Effective Communications

Clear objectives and strong integration are reinforced by effective communications with growers.

The industry is in regular contact with all 7,200 contracted growers on commercial, environmental and technical matters. Principal communication vehicles are:

• Face to face contact with growers by British Sugar's field staff, independent consultants, trade and research staff.
• Grower meetings organised through the BBRO where typically growers representing 20%-30% of the national area are covered each year.
• A central mailing facility that enables all growers to be contacted by British Sugar or the NFU at 36 hours notice.
• A highly acclaimed quarterly technical journal (the "British Sugar Beet Review") which is distributed to all growers and other parties interested in the beet sugar industry.
• A specially designed intranet facility which now links with 2,000 growers representing 60% of the growing area, and which provides up to date technical advice and commercial information.
• Open days at sites where field trials are being held, which are used for comparative trials of new seed varieties and demonstration of improved cultivation techniques for growers.
• A comprehensive reference manual on crop production (the "Grower's Guide"), which is compiled by Broom's Barn and sent to all growers, and is also available electronically on the industry intranet.
• National events and working demonstrations which are held approximately every 3 years, and which are attended by up to 50% of growers and all interested trade and research groups.
• A variety of warning bulletins, fax and telephone services.
• Close working links with the agricultural media.

Again, the detailed and co-ordinated nature of these communication facilities enables messages to be transmitted to growers and circulated round the industry quickly and efficiently, making technology transfer particularly effective.

Record of Delivery

Because of these advantages, the industry has a highly successful record of delivery in all key areas of its objectives (see below). It is also able to adapt rapidly to changing demands and pressures.

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2. Crop Competitiveness

Yield Performance

Figure 2.1

Yields have been increased over the last 30 years by an average of 1.3% per year. In the last decade, 7 separate initiatives have been pursued by the industry to improve crop competitiveness and environmental performance:

• Improved crop storage
• Selection of high performing varieties
• Reduced field losses at harvest
• Earlier drilling date
• Introduction of micro-applied seed dressings
• "Just-in-time" harvesting
• Crop profitability initiative (financial appraisals for individual growers)

As a result, yields have risen more rapidly in recent years than would have been expected from the long-term yield trend. Indeed the national sugar yield has doubled from 4.5 to 9.0 tonnes of sugar per hectare in the last 25 years, markedly improving the UK's ranking amongst EU countries in terms of productivity.

Economic Returns

Despite a 30% fall in the sterling price paid to growers, sugar beet remains the most financially secure and bankable major arable crop. Driven by improving yields, gross and net margins derived from it are consistently higher than for wheat, barley, oilseed rape and pulses, and more dependable than potatoes.

Each year British Sugar pays growers approximately £300M for the 8 - 10 million tonnes of crop it buys, making a valuable contribution to rural regeneration. A total of 23,000 jobs depend on the industry.

Industry Efficiency

Strong yield and economic crop performances, combined with efficient processing operations, have led to the overall UK industry becoming highly competitive.

The most recent report of the leading international consultants LMC Ltd ranks the UK beet sugar industry as the most efficient in Europe.

3. Contributionto the Environment, Biodiversity and Bird Life

Sugar Beet as a Break Crop

Sugar beet is an important break crop for cereals, and is highly valued in the rotation for this reason.

Because its host pests and diseases are different from those of combinable crops, its cultivation reduces disease and pest levels in the rotation, and therefore contributes to lower pesticide applications. It also contributes to agricultural sustainability by preventing monoculture and ensuring that rotational benefits are achieved.

Sugar beet also reduces fertiliser requirements for following cereal crops. Plant residues from the crop, e.g. leaves and root fragments, break down slowly releasing nutrients to the soil over a long period of time. The levels of inorganic bought-in fertiliser applied to the following crop can therefore be scaled down proportionately.

These two factors generate the increased cereal yields which are invariably observed after sugar beet has been grown.

Spring Sowing

Sugar beet provides the second largest area of spring sown crop in the UK, after spring barley, and 60% of it is grown on land that is ploughed in early spring.

This combination of circumstances helps to support bird populations. In the winter a variety of habitats are created on winter stubbles, and beet fields provide an important source of over-wintering food. In spring time the crop provides nesting sites for species such as skylarks and stone curlews.

Contribution to Biodiversity and Bird Life

The detailed response on biodiversity and bird life is being supplied by English Nature, RSPB, British Trust for Ornithology and DEFRA's Rural Development Service, as agreed at the Boxworth site meeting.

It is planned to propose joint projects with leading environmental groups (see Recommended Future Actions) to further strengthen the positive impact of sugar beet on the environment.

4.Integrated Pest Management

Pesticide Application Strategy

In the interests both of reducing costs and improving the environmental impacts of sugar beet cultivation, a responsible strategy has been created and pursued to manage pesticide applications.

Pests and diseases are actively monitored throughout the growing season to assess incidence levels and geographical spread. Modelling, and other research tools, are also used to predict the severity of outbreaks and potential crop damage. Recommended control measures are then targeted specifically where required, often with appropriate warning schemes. This avoids "blanket insurance treatments" and ensures that insecticides and fungicides are only applied where necessary. Herbicide use is similarly minimised using low dose strategies which have been developed and refined by research and demonstration centres over many years.

Seed Treatment Technology

Since 1995, improved seed treatment technology has become available capable of "micro applying" pesticides to the seed and to the pellet which encapsulates it.

This development, which has been actively encouraged by the industry, has allowed very much more precise application of pesticides and has eliminated indiscriminate treatments. It has also resulted in a substantial reduction in pesticide loading per hectare, particularly of the more toxic chemicals, such that 70% of the crop now receives no sprayed insecticide at all.

Reduced Pesticide Usage

As a direct consequence of these changes, pesticide usage on sugar beet has been sharply reduced (Figures 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3).

Figure 4.1	Figure 4.2	Figure 4.3

• 52% reduction in total volume of pesticides used.
• 49% reduction in amount applied per hectare.
• 63% reduction in herbicides.
• 95% reduction in organochlorine, organophosphate and carbamate insecticides.

Only fungicides have failed to mirror this reducing trend. This is because a damaging disease of sugar beet, powdery mildew, has been specifically (and successfully) targeted for late season control. This situation will be examined under future actions (see below).

5. Fertiliser Application and Nitrates Strategy

Nitrogen Application

Nitrogen use on sugar beet is closely monitored on an individual grower basis by analysing samples from crop deliveries. This information is then modified to take into account mineral nitrogen availability which is assessed each year by a spring soil sampling and forecasting procedure. Application recommendations are then based on the conclusions from this work, and are therefore tailored for each grower to provide the optimum nitrogen application in each case.

Figure 5.1

For the last 15 years, growers who have been applying high levels of nitrogen have been individually targeted to reduce usage rates to the minimum levels required for the crop. To use more is costly to the farmer, environmentally damaging and contributes to poor beet quality. The results of this targeting of nitrogen usage are shown in Figure 5.1.

Figure 5.2

Since 1970 nitrogen application rates for the sugar beet crop have been reduced by 33%.  They are still falling slowly as the last remaining outliers are addressed. Sugar beet now has the lowest nitrogen usage of any major arable crop in the UK - averaging 105Kg per hectare compared to approximately 190Kg per hectare for wheat, oilseed rape and potatoes (Figure 5.2)

Nitrogen Residues and Nitrates

Sugar beet is a deep rooting plant which sends down a dense network of root fibres to a depth of 2 metres. It is consequently an excellent scavenger of nutrients, and extracts most available nitrogen from the soil. Consequently, nitrogen fertiliser residues in the soil are low at harvest time: typically of the order of 3-8 mg/kg soil. Risk of nitrates leaching from the crop is therefore low.

Additionally, recycled crop tissues (leaves etc) provide slowly released nitrogen and nutrients, which benefit the following cereal crop (see above).

Phosphate and Potassium Application

Application of both phosphate and potassium to sugar beet is closely controlled, and rates used are close to the optimum levels for crop requirements.

6. Environmental Erosion

Soil Erosion

Twenty years ago, soil losses from wind and water erosion were often serious issues in the spring, particularly on the lighter Fenland soils of East Anglia. To counter this a programme of planting cover crops on susceptible soil types has been introduced, and soil management practices have been improved by using cultivation techniques that involve far fewer field operations.

As a result of this programme the area of the sugar beet crop having to be re-drilled because of erosion damage has reduced by 7,000 hectares since 1980, and is now at a consistently low level averaging less than 1% of the crop area.

Water Resources

Sugar beet is not normally irrigated, except in severe drought conditions. In the last 5 years less than 5% of the crop on average has received irrigation, and that mainly on light soils in August.

Irrigation is so little used partly because it is less economic to do so relative to potatoes and high value vegetable crops, and partly because the critical soil moisture deficit at which water is needed is much less demanding for beet than for other crops, due to its extensive root system. In other words, it can withstand much drier conditions without affecting quality or yield significantly. Where irrigation is used, application rates are based on industry standard recommendations which are modified, as necessary to take into account differing soil requirements, thereby maximising yield response per applied millimetre of water.

Demand on water resources is therefore low, and as over use of irrigation is rare, attributable leaching of nutrients is almost completely avoided.

7. Food Safety and Traceability

Food Safety Management Scheme

Being able to demonstrate safe and approved application of agrochemicals to the sugar beet crop forms an essential component of quality assurance for customers and ultimately the final consumer. A specially designed crop assurance scheme has been introduced to do this.

Each year a random sample of about 540 contracts (8% of the total) is selected for detailed auditing of pesticide applications. Following a personal visit by a British Sugar Area Manager, records of all applications are cross checked against a central database (which is updated with the Government's Pesticide Safety Directorate) to verify compliance. Any cases of non-compliances are assessed individually, and corrective action agreed by a joint industry group. Records of all audits are kept for future reference and to provide an audit trail for the programme's external assessors, Lloyds Register.

Operation of the scheme is defined by a detailed procedure which is also independently audited.

Customers are kept regularly updated, and their input is welcomed to maintain a process of continuous improvement.

GM Control Audits

GM derived sugar is not cleared for food use, and it is therefore illegal to sell it in Britain. Additionally, in recent years consumer awareness of the GM issue has become much more acute.

To satisfy consumer concerns, food manufacturers demand assurances from the sugar industry that their products are GM-free. Because a substantial number (up to 90) GM beet trials have been carried out in the UK each year, it has been necessary to devise a particularly strict set of audit procedures which are agreed throughout the industry, to ensure that no GM beet is inadvertently delivered to British Sugar factories for processing. These procedures were written in conjunction with Lloyds Register, to provide the highest possible standards of professionalism and rigour.

Auditing begins with seed production. Procedures have been agreed with seed and pelleting companies specifying production standards, testing of individual batches and traceability. All GM trials are then strictly controlled from drilling to harvest and clearance, and the contracts on which the trials are being carried out are kept "on hold" until confirmation the GM trial has successfully been cleared. Only then are commercial deliveries of sugar beet for processing permitted. . To date, the procedures have been completely successful in preventing any adventitious delivery of GM beet, despite the number of GM trials conducted in the UK.

8. Soil Protection

Soil Protection Strategy

Each year, up to 10 million tonnes of sugar beet are purchased by British Sugar. Unavoidably, a small amount of soil adheres to the roots during the harvesting process and is delivered with each consignment. Because of the large volume of crop, even a small percentage of adhering soil generates several hundred thousand tonnes of soil, representing a significant potential erosion loss.

To address this risk, a dual strategy has been developed:

• To minimise soil loss ("dirt tare") at the farm.
• To re-use the soil received by developing beneficial and sustainable applications for its use in agricultural, amenity, landscaping and industrial markets.

Minimising Soil Erosion at the Farm

Soil loss on farm ("dirt tare") has been minimised to the lowest practicable levels for dry handling by:

• Improving harvesting practices.
• Introducing crop cleaning for over 90% of the crop.
• Upholding high delivery standards at factories.

Figure 8.1

The effect of this has been to reduce dirt tares by more than half in the last 15 years (Figure 8.1).

Figure 8.2

This improvement benefits the environment, and not just by minimising soil erosion at the farm. Transport of soil with the crop is also reduced, so saving energy and road congestion and reducing soil handling and treatment at the factories.

Beneficial Applications for Sugar Beet Soil

Soil received with the crop is recovered and marketed under the "Topsoil" brand. Applications include:

• Agricultural land improvements;
• Conditioned product for civil engineering, amenity and landscaping markets;
• Screened product for specialist markets (e.g. garden centres);

All soil received (averaging 350,000 tonnes each year) is now used in productive applications, and half of it is returned to agricultural land to replenish stocks and provide textural benefit.

Applications for Stone Aggregate

A smaller volume of stone (typically about 25,000 tonnes each year) is also received with the crop.

All of this is recycled and used for civil engineering, road building and construction applications.

Substantial capital investment (totalling approximately £1million to date) is being made to improve stone washing and product quality.

Applications for Liming Materials

In addition to the soil and stone aggregate referred to above, each year approximately 450,000 tonnes of liming material is produced by the industry as a co-product of the sugar manufacturing process. This is marketed under the "LimeX" brand, and sold for a variety of agricultural and industrial applications.

Again, this provides a sustainable and environmentally beneficial way of conditioning land, which avoids having to mine and crush valuable reserves of limestone.

9. Organic Beet Production

In response to market demand, commercial production of organic sugar beet started in 2001, when 10,000 tonnes of crop were grown and processed under Soil Association criteria.

Demand has continued to increase, such that the amount contracted to be grown for 2002 has doubled to 20,000 tonnes. Future expansion will be driven by consumer demand, plus the availability of growers willing to farm organically and the economics of production.

BBRO funded research programmes into organic pest, disease and weed control will inevitably encourage more benign conventional production methods, further improving the industry's environmental credentials.

Also see addendum below... 

10. Summary

Sugar beet production in the UK has a commendable record for environmental protection. Positive contributions can be summarised as:

• Crop production is managed under a sustainable crop production strategy, benefiting from a highly focussed and integrated industry.
• The industry is efficient, competitive and responsive to change.
• Sugar beet production contributes to biodiversity and bird life.
• It also adds value as a break crop and contributes to sustainable agriculture through its rotational benefits.
• Pesticide applications are managed through a responsible and integrated strategy, which has driven a 52% cut in pesticide usage.
• A low fertiliser policy is implemented, which has cut nitrogen usage by 33%.
• The industry has a strong soil protection policy, which has succeeded in minimising soil erosion on farm, and has created sustainable market outlets for the soil received.
• Rigorous food safety and traceability standards are enforced.
• Organic sugar beet production is being actively developed. - See note below.

11. Recommendations for the Future

Recommended further work, which we believe could improve the environmental impact of the crop includes:

• Increasing yields and reducing costs by 20% by 2006.
• Headland management projects to improve biodiversity.
• The introduction of joint research and trialling projects with leading environmental groups.
• Additional improvements to soil protection practices.
• More closely co-ordinated technical transfer arrangements for 'best practice' and research results.
• Re-examination of the industry's fungicide strategy.
• More controlled use of organic manures.
• Development of organic production.

Addendum July 2004

Although there was significant market interest in organic beet sugar from the outset, following four years of involvement in the production of organic beet, the market proved insufficient to sustain viable production.  As a result, the decision was taken in July 2004 to process that season's crop as conventional product and not to contract for the growing of organic sugar beet in 2005.