British Survey of Fertiliser Practice (BSFP)

Description

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the "Authority", is seeking to appoint a Contractor to provide Services for undertaking the BSFP for Great Britain. Annual data will be collected for 3 surveys covering periods 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 (see Key Milestones at paragraph 4.1). The contract will commence on 1st April 2023 and end on the 31st March 2026. If a new contractor is appointed, a three-month handover period will be required with the existing supplier, in which instance the contract is anticipated to commence on 3rd January 2023 and end on 31st March 2026. The contract will include the potential to extend for a further two consecutive periods of 12 months to undertake the 2026/27 & 2027/28 surveys respectively. The successful Contractor will 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 (see Appendix B of an example of the farm questionnaire used in previous years); 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.