Multifunctional land use in UK agriculture

Agricultural landscapes are increasingly expected to deliver multiple benefits, including food production, biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, water quality and wider ecosystem services. A growing range of approaches, including regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, and paludiculture, are promoted as ways of achieving several objectives simultaneously. However, the evidence for their benefits is mixed, and improvements in one outcome may involve trade-offs with another.

This project will synthesise evidence from UK studies to understand which multifunctional farming practices deliver multiple benefits, where trade-offs occur, and how this evidence can inform sustainable land-use planning.

The project will undertake a scoping review of empirical studies from the UK, focusing on published research. Evidence will be extracted on outcomes including food production, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions/carbon, water, soil and farm economics.

Results will be synthesised to identify patterns of synergies and trade-offs between outcomes and assess which practices have the greatest potential to deliver multiple benefits, along with the effect size.