New innovation is kind to soil (From Gazette & Herald)

New innovation is kind to soil

A RETIRED North Yorkshire farmer has invented a device which could help reduce flooding risks and pollution - while keeping arable land fertile and productive.

Charles Creyke, from near Thirsk, has come up with a way of reducing the surface run-off from ploughed land during and after heavy rainfall.

His Aqueel punches thousands of small indentations in the soil as it rolls along, each one a "mini-reservoir" capable of holding up to a litre of water.

This stops rainwater running across the surface and draining quickly away into already overloaded streams and rivers. Instead, the water collects in the indentations until it percolates into the soil.

As well as reducing the flooding threat, the device can also cut the amount of nutrients and chemicals deposited in rivers as a pollutant after heavy rainfall.

Lincolnshire firm Simba International Ltd, which is manufacturing the Aqueel, say its potential to reduce the threat of flooding and pollution has caught the interest of the Environment Agency and field trials are planned by Simba in conjunction with the agency.

Dick Thompson, of Cranfield University, said most floodplains were agricultural land, so farming techniques had a significant impact on flooding. After the autumn flooding, some of the driest soils were found under flooded land.

"This suggests most of the rain had run off these fields rather than percolating into the soil"

Updated: 10:24 Thursday, February 22, 2001