British Survey of Fertiliser Practice (BSFP

Concepts

• british survey of fertiliser practice
• environmental services
• authority in liaison
• use of fertilisers
• breakdowns of the pattern of fertiliser usage
• aim of the survey
• survey standard error estimates
• different fertiliser produce types
• fertilisers
• fertiliser

Location

United Kingdom:

Description

To collect and produce information on the use of fertilisers and manures in Great Britain. Work on this activity is directed by the Authority in liaison with the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government. The aim of the survey is to provide details of: a) application rates and timings of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P2O5), potash (K2O) and sulphur (SO3) fertilisers, lime (CaO) and the use of organic manures on grassland and individual crops and crop groups; b) Applications should be estimated on the basis of each of application rates, dressing cover and overall field rates c) trends in fertiliser and organic manure use by ensuring that key series are maintained; d) breakdowns of the pattern of fertiliser usage split by Government Office Region for England and for the whole of Wales and Scotland; breakdown of Scottish data by land use region is not one of the standard output tabulations but the design of the survey should allow reliable reporting of data to this level if requested; e) use of fertilisers by farm type; f) different fertiliser produce types used, broken down by major crop groups e.g. cereals, oilseeds, pulses, grassland, month of application and application rate; g) fertiliser use on major arable tillage crops and grassland; h) Information on the drivers of changing fertiliser use.

Total Quantity or Scope

The Contractor will: a) Provide an annual report with standard tabulations for the key data series that ensure continuity and consistency with previous years, including survey standard error estimates. All tabular data from the report should also be available in a machine readable format such as Microsoft Excel. Provisional key results are required by the end of November and a final report by the end of February the detail of which will be agreed in advance with the Authority. b) Construct a farm level dataset, by the end of February and incorporate this dataset into a database of results from previous years, ensuring that fertiliser use of individual farms can be tracked over time. c) Answer additional data requests on fertiliser use that cannot be readily derived from the published standard tabulations. Requests will be via the Authority who will direct the scope of such requests. Procedures for releasing information, in particular taking into account data confidentiality, will need to be agreed with the Authority to ensure that commercially sensitive information for individual growers cannot be inferred. The Contract provides for up to 25 hours per annum for such queries; beyond this enquiries will be dealt with at the agreed hourly rate as directed by the Authority

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 90700000 - Environmental services

Legal Justification

This project was initially advertised (30/01/2018) via the Official Journal of the European Union (reference: 2018-040186) calling for interested parties to submit tender bids. One bid was received (Kynetic UK). The contract was awarded for the duration of 2 years (1st May 2018 – 30th April 2020) with the option to extend the contract for a further 24 months, taking the contract end date to 31st March 2022. The Authority is in the process of extending the contract for a further 1 year (1st April 2022 – 31st March 2023). The results from this survey form an important part of the evidence base for farming, its economic performance and environmental impacts. A key statutory use of the data is to feed into the modelling used for the greenhouse gas emissions inventory. However, a new UK agriculture policy is being developed and a replacement system of support payments to farmers is being finalised Details have not been finalized, so it is still unclear what the priorities will be and how policies relating to fertiliser use and its environmental impacts may operate. As a result, there are large uncertainties around policy priorities and budgets and the associated priorities and budgets for the evidence to support these priorities. Potentially we could see increased demand for reliable data on fertiliser use but there is also a chance that this need may diminish. Hence, the Authority intends to extend the current arrangements for a year, during which time we expect to have much greater clarity and certainty on these priorities. As a result, the Authority will have a clearer picture of our budget for the next few years and to be able to commit to a multi-year survey contract for BSFP. Currently preparation for the survey commences annually (February to March) to ensure the survey commences in June of each year. This is turn means that the Authority can successfully publish the results in June of the following year. It important to achieve this publication date as the results are published in UK documents, allowing sufficient time for the next cycle of the survey to commence during the appropriate window. The additional variation will be issued on the grounds of PCR 2015 Clause 72 (1) (e) which permits modifications without the need for a new procurement.

Other Information

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