A GROUND-BREAKING research facility set up to perform in-depth studies into soil and compost was opened last week at Laverstoke Park near Overton.

The Soil Foodweb laboratory is the only one of its kind in Europe, and will be used to perform research into the biodiversity of micro-organisms in soil, and the nutrients required for growing plants in different conditions.

In line with Laverstoke Park's approach to all its farming work, owner Jody Scheckter says he hopes the research will lead to finding the most natural and healthy types of soil and what sort of uses would suit them most effectively.

He adds: "There are more living organisms in a handful of soil than people on earth, so it very complex and we probably only really know about five per cent of those organisms and what they do.

"I firmly believe the more nutrient-rich and natural soil is, the more effective it will be.

"The key to using soils effectively is getting the correct balance of fungi and bacteria, and then each soil can be tailored to individual crops, as well as horticultural uses and even football pitches."

Dr Elaine Ingham, a world-leading soil ex-pert, will oversee the lab's work, which will be used alongside that of a network of other facilities around the world.

She said: "Our research in other labs has shown that modern practices and using chemicals are hugely detrimental to quality of crops.

"Farmers who have used all our research and got the biology back into soil have found they get up to ten times higher yields and the taste is like night and day."