It Started in 1843 and Hasn’t Stopped: Discover the World’s Oldest Experiment That Transformed Modern Agriculture and Is Still Active Today

Written by Romário Pereira de Carvalho

Published on 21/10/2025 at 11:16

Updated on 21/10/2025 at 11:19

Imagem ilustrativa: IA

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Created in 1843 by John Bennet Lawes, the Broadbalk Experiment, in the United Kingdom, is still active for almost two centuries, being the longest agricultural study in the world and a global reference in productivity and sustainability

It was 1832 when John Bennet Lawes, a young British man of only 17 years, inherited a large estate in Hertfordshire, England. Expelled from Oxford and with plenty of free time, he began testing something simple, but that would change the course of global agriculture.

The Beginning of an Idea That Would Turn Into Revolution

Curious, Lawes decided to plant medicinal herbs and observe the effects of different fertilizers in pots.

The results excited him because they showed that productivity could vary depending on the fertilizer used.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

The Birth of the Longest Experiment in History

The following year, in 1843, the young Briton initiated the Broadbalk Experiment, the oldest continuous agricultural study in the world.

The goal was to understand, over the decades, how different types of fertilizers and cultivation methods affected winter wheat and soil fertility.

The first harvest took place in 1844. Since then, the same field in Rothamsted has been cultivated annually, with strips of wheat subjected to distinct treatments.

Some areas received the same type of fertilizer for more than 160 years, which makes the study a true scientific treasure.

A Field That Continues to Teach the World of Agriculture

Over time, the experiment has been updated. New varieties of wheat have been introduced and modern cultivation techniques have emerged.

Even so, the essence of the study remains the same: to understand in the long term the effects of human actions on the soil and agricultural productivity.

The data accumulated over nearly two centuries continues to guide research on sustainability and environmental impact.

Thanks to Lawes, agricultural science has gained a solid foundation to feed billions of people around the planet.

The Broadbalk Experiment is, to this day, living proof that time can be the best ally of science.

With information from Xataka.

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Shakira Mitchell

#184463

21/10/2025 11:28

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It Started in 1843 and Hasn’t Stopped: Discover the World’s Oldest Experiment That Transformed Modern Agriculture and Is Still Active Today

Created in 1843 by John Bennet Lawes, the Broadbalk Experiment, in the United Kingdom, is still active for almost two centuries, being the longest agricultural study in the world and a global reference in productivity and sustainability

The Beginning of an Idea That Would Turn Into Revolution

The Birth of the Longest Experiment in History

A Field That Continues to Teach the World of Agriculture

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It Started in 1843 and Hasn’t Stopped: Discover the World’s Oldest Experiment That Transformed Modern Agriculture and Is Still Active Today

Created in 1843 by John Bennet Lawes, the Broadbalk Experiment, in the United Kingdom, is still active for almost two centuries, being the longest agricultural study in the world and a global reference in productivity and sustainability

The Beginning of an Idea That Would Turn Into Revolution

The Birth of the Longest Experiment in History

A Field That Continues to Teach the World of Agriculture

A giant half-ton ring fell in Kenya from space, and more than a year later, scientists still do not know where it came from.

Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

In Botswana, a salt flat of up to 16,000 km² that was once an African megalake spends months as an absolute white desert, but during the rainy season it transforms into a shallow sea that reappears from nowhere and can be seen from space in the middle of southern Africa.

While the U.S. still faces limitations in deep space, China is developing unprecedented technology with strategic satellites that maintain communication with the far side of the Moon and aims for dominance by 2030.

Bavarian archaeologists unearthed a medieval skeleton that had an articulated iron hand in place of its left arm, and the discovery reveals that doctors were already creating sophisticated prosthetics over 500 years ago.

For the first time, scientists have mapped the Etna magma system in almost real time and discovered where the volcano was storing large volumes of molten material before years of eruptions, revealing an underground reservoir that fills and reorganizes like a living organism beneath the mountain.

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