Input to Yield Ratio (IYR) maps for wheat farming in England, 2010-2017
Fincham, W.N.W., Risser, H.A., Jarvis, S.G., Schultz, C., Spurgeon, D.J., Redhead, J.W., Storkey, J., Pywell, R.F., Bullock, J.M. (2023). Input to Yield Ratio (IYR) maps for wheat farming in England, 2010-2017. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/dfe2a4a5-2b3a-4731-ba7f-aea7e926f1dd
These maps show the Input to Yield Ratio (IYR) of wheat farming in England, calculated as the ratio of agrochemical inputs to agricultural reward as yield. We assess the IYR at a 1km resolution for wheat grown in England over the period the period 2010-2017, considering the different agrochemicals used and their differing forms of environmental impact. We provide four mapped products: IYR for Nitrogen fertilisers, IYR for Phosphorus fertilisers, IYR for pesticide risk to earthworms, and IYR for pesticide risk to honeybees. The IYR is calculated using scaled rather than absolute values, with the maximum value in each yield and inputs dataset set as 1, so that all inputs and rewards are expressed proportionally to each other. The research was funded under research programme NE/N018125/1 ASSIST and NE/W005050/1 AgZero+.
We mapped estimated pesticide and fertiliser applications to 1km grid squares in England using data from the Fera Pesticide Utilisation Survey and the British Survey of Fertiliser Practice, respectively. Estimated pesticide applications were converted to risk values to honeybees and earthworms using information on toxicity from the Pesticide Property Database. Areas with winter wheat crop were identified from the UKCEH Land Cover® plus: Crops map. Data from the June Survey of Agricultural and Horticultural activity were used to create an average wheat yield map for England. We then compared the fertiliser and pesticide application datasets separately to estimated yields of wheat in order to derive the Input to Yield Ratio (IYR) for four separate agrochemical inputs: Nitrogen fertilisers, Phosphorus fertilisers, pesticide exposure for earthworms, and pesticide exposure for honeybees.
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems (ASSIST)
Towards Sustainable, Climate-Neutral Farming Systems (AgZero+)