Why the UK needs a horticultural strategy

Is there an underappreciated sector that could deliver the financial growth that government craves whilst also delivering wider environmental and health benefits?

The UK horticultural sector contributes £5 billion a year to the UK economy and employs 50,000 people. It accounts for 9% of the total contribution of agriculture to the economy but uses less than on 1% of the UK’s farmland. The country has 28 million gardeners and garden tourism has an estimated annual value of £2.9 billion.

A recent report by the Green Alliance estimated that helping the UK’s horticulture industry to expand in line with people eating the recommended amount of fresh produce could add £2.3 billion to the UK economy, support up to 23,520 additional jobs and boost farm incomes by 3%, at a time when the government is exploring how to boost their profitability. 

Like many other sectors, horticulture is at a pivotal moment facing a significant range of challenges. Extreme weather is disrupting growing seasons, costs of raw materials are increasing and the need to transition to a low carbon model that enhances biodiversity is becoming more acute.

A coherent strategy that creates a thriving horticultural sector would play a significant and positive role in the transition to a more sustainable economy helping to promote biodiversity, natural carbon capture, urban greening and boosting food security. Such a strategy could address the following five challenges:

Encourage more people to grow and eat UK fruit and vegetables

To meet dietary guidelines, people in the UK would need to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables they eat by a massive 86%. Just a third of UK adults eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables each day.

Currently only 17% of fruit and 55% of vegetables consumed in the UK are grown in this country. Increasing these numbers would enhance food security and boost the national economy.

The amount of fresh fruit and vegetables entering households from free sources like gardens and allotments is decreasing down to 1% in 2022 from 3% in 2020. Land used for allotments in the UK has declined 60% from its peak in the 1950s. An eight times greater loss has been seen in deprived communities. 

A changed approach would yield significant benefits. In Sheffield, allotment land feeds approximately 3% of the population on a five a day diet. If just 10% of land in the city was shifted into productivity, through allotments or community gardens, about 15% of Sheffield’s population could be fed its five fruit and vegetables a day diet.

Creating a sustainable land use framework

The Green Alliance report highlights that expanding horticultural production need not come at the expense of UK self-sufficiency levels in other foods estimating that 113,622 hectares of land would be needed to expand horticulture production by 86% which is less than the 133,000 hectares currently used to grow bioenergy crops. Removing incentives for these bioenergy crops would cut support for an extremely inefficient way to generate energy: per hectare, they produce 100 times less energy than solar.

A Sustainable Land Use Framework could support the expansion of the sector by identifying the most suitable soils and sites to grow fruit and vegetables. This would involve addressing the tricky challenge of how to expand horticulture whilst reducing emissions from lowland peat which currently grows approximately 22% of the country’s vegetables. This is possible because many vegetables can be grown in other soils whilst crops such as celery, watercress and lettuce could be grown in wetter conditions where emissions are substantially lower.

Introduce legislation to phase out the use of peat

Legislation is urgently needed to stop peat being used by amateur gardens and to create a clear timeframe providing commercial growers and retailers with the confidence to make the required levels of investment.

Alongside this primary legislation, new quality standards must be introduced for peat-free composts so that gardeners are aware of what they are buying, how to best use it and help them to ensure that they are purchasing a suitable growing media for their needs.

Develop a sustainable soil strategy

UK agricultural soils are eroding year on year at significant cost – estimated to be around £1.2 billion a year. Climate Change is exacerbating the problem with flooding, extreme rainfall and heat waves leading to increased soil erosion, placing even greater pressure on hard-hit farmers and polluting rivers.

The causes of soil deterioration are well-known including loss of organic matter, erosion, compaction, contamination and sealing through the covering of land for development. Assessing the current situation is virtually impossible due to the lack of accurate national data. This lack of data significantly hinders the creation of a national approach to enhancing soil quality.

Promote sustainable gardening

Residential gardens make up 5% of land in the UK – the size of Aberdeenshire. Sustainable growing in these gardens could boost biodiversity, help reduce urban heat, cut flash flooding and provide a range of health benefits for citizens. 

Advice on how to garden sustainably needs to be more accessible and inclusive. The current relative lack of engagement has negative environmental consequences. For instance, biodiversity is being threatened by the paving over of green spaces and the proliferation of artificial grass. These trends also increase the likelihood of localised flash flooding and urban heating.  

Amateur gardeners are not being provided with enough support to move away from reliance on pesticides and herbicides and are getting insufficient guidance on how to grow when faced with more extreme weather events.

There is little or no horticulture in many children’s education. A 2019 survey of 1,000 children between the ages of 5 and 16 showed that 82% could not identify an oak tree, 50% could not identify a bluebell and 42% did not recognise a dandelion. Schools provide excellent opportunities for children to learn more about growing and to link this to healthier diets with higher levels of locally grown fruit and vegetables.

At a time when government is scrambling around for policy solutions that can solve a range of thorny issues, they could do far worse than investing time in supporting horticulture.