Agriculture Editorial Policy

This policy sets out the editorial standards for articles in the Agriculture & Farming section of CAB Direct. It applies to four areas of coverage: regenerative farming, precision agriculture, GM crops and biotechnology, and agricultural markets and subsidies. Subjects range from no-till systems, cover crops and digital soil mapping to glyphosate, Bt crops, GMO detection, seed banks, irrigation, food loss and waste, commodity prices and farm support schemes. The aim is to show where each claim comes from and to keep measured results apart from estimates and opinion. Farming research is described without extending it beyond the fields, seasons and markets that were studied. The general rules for the whole site are set out in the site-wide editorial policy; this page explains how they apply to agricultural evidence.

How Agriculture articles are prepared

An Agriculture article starts from a defined question: what a practice, technology or policy does, for which crops or farming systems, in which regions and at what scale. The same standards apply whether the subject is soil organic matter under cover crops, the accuracy of a yield map or the effect of a support scheme on farm incomes.

• The question, the farming system and the geography covered are stated early, so readers can judge whether the evidence applies to their own conditions.
• Every figure is given with what it measures, where it applies and when it was recorded, together with its source.
• Where sources disagree, a range is preferred to a single average, with a short explanation of why the estimates differ.
• Effects are reported in absolute terms as well as relative ones: yields in tonnes per hectare for both treatments, for example, not only a percentage change.
• Measured trial results are kept separate from modelled estimates, associations found in farm surveys, and marketing or advocacy claims.
• Metric units come first, with the imperial equivalent in brackets at first mention, for example 8.5 t/ha (3.4 t/acre).
• Articles explain evidence rather than give instructions: they do not set out pesticide application rates or programmes for a particular farm, and price information is not investment advice.
• Each article names its author and the author's stated role.

Sources and evidence

Agriculture articles rely on primary research and official data wherever these exist. A finding about a practice, technology or crop trait is traced to the study that measured it. Statistics on crop areas, yields, production, trade and prices are traced to the body that compiles them. Statements about subsidies, pesticide approvals or GM rules are traced to the legislation or scheme documents of the responsible authority. The organisations named below are examples of source types; naming them does not imply any partnership with, or endorsement by, those organisations.

Encyclopaedia entries and their mirrors can help locate primary sources but are not cited as evidence. Forums, content farms, press releases without a link to the underlying work and AI-generated text are not treated as evidence either. A performance claim made by a machinery, seed or agrochemical company is reported as that company's claim unless independent trials support it. Links in articles lead to the sources behind the claims rather than to shops, dealers or sales pages. How the strength of evidence is judged is explained on the page about how evidence is rated.

Interpreting agricultural evidence

Agricultural research takes several forms, each answering a different question, and an article states which kind of evidence stands behind each conclusion. A result from one soil type, one season or one market year is described as such. Where a study reports them, the conditions that could change the outcome are named: rainfall, soil texture, crop variety, input prices or farm size.

Yields, prices and policy figures

Comparisons of farming systems state their unit, because yield per hectare in a single season can differ from output across a whole rotation. The difference matters for organic systems, whose rotations often include fertility-building crops such as clover leys. Prices are given with their market, date and currency, and with a note on whether they are nominal or adjusted for inflation. Information on subsidies and regulation is tied to a named jurisdiction and date, since rules on farm support, pesticides and GM or gene-edited crops differ between countries and change over time. Official statistics are revised from time to time, so a figure is quoted together with the release it comes from.

On contested subjects such as GM crops and glyphosate, conclusions from regulatory assessments, independent studies and systematic reviews are attributed to their own sources rather than merged into a single verdict.

Editorial roles and team

The Agriculture & Farming section is written by five authors, each covering a defined part of the subject area. All five hold the role of author and are affiliated with the CAB Direct Editorial Team. The current roster does not list a separate reviewer or editor for the section.

Coverage by author

• Harriet Colbeck (BSc Agriculture, MSc Soil Science): regenerative farming, soil organic matter, cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management.
• Tobias Mardle (BEng Agricultural Engineering): precision agriculture, including yield mapping, soil and crop sensors, variable-rate application, drones and decision-support software.
• Callum Hebden (BSc Agricultural Economics, MSc Food Policy): agricultural markets and prices, farm subsidies and support schemes, land use, and the regulation and farm-level economics of GM and gene-edited crops.
• Anjali Dhanjal (BSc Plant Science, MSc Plant Breeding): plant breeding, the science of GM and gene-edited crops, GMO detection, Vavilov's centres of crop origin, seed banks and crop diversity, and Bt crops and non-target organisms.
• Nuala Keaveney (BAgrSc, MSc Sustainable Agriculture): organic and conventional farming, irrigation methods, yield gap research, vertical farming, food loss and waste, and agroforestry trials.

Full profiles with credentials and areas of coverage are listed on the authors page.

Review and publication checks

Before an Agriculture article is published, its claims and figures are checked against traceable sources. The checks concern the content of the article rather than a fixed sequence of review stages:

• each figure matches its source in value, unit, year and geography;
• the design behind each result is described correctly, whether a field trial, a farm survey, a model or a review;
• the wording does not claim more than the evidence supports, for example by turning a single-site result into a general rule;
• statements about regulation and policy name the jurisdiction and the date they refer to;
• technical terms are explained at first use.

This policy does not describe a formal scientific peer-review stage for Agriculture articles, and none should be assumed.

Updates, corrections and reader feedback

This policy does not set a fixed review interval for Agriculture articles. An article can be revised when a cited source is updated, corrected or withdrawn, when new official statistics replace older figures, or when a reported error is confirmed. Corrections are dated and remain visible in the article, so readers can see what was changed.

A possible error can be reported through the corrections page. A useful report gives the page address, the sentence or figure concerned and, where possible, a source that supports the correction. Each report is checked against the evidence, and a report does not by itself mean that the article will change. Other questions about the section can be sent through the contacts page.

Conflicts of interest

This page does not set out a separate conflict-of-interest procedure for the Agriculture section, and none should be inferred from it. Questions about a possible conflict of interest in a published article can be raised through the contacts page.

Related CAB Direct pages

• Agriculture & Farming section: /agriculture/
• About CAB Direct: /about/
• Site-wide editorial policy: /editorial-policy/
• How evidence is rated: /how-we-rate-evidence/
• Authors: /authors/
• Corrections: /corrections/
• Contacts: /contacts/