That was the message from the third North Norfolk Coastal Group annual conference, which brought more than 70 farmers, landowners and rural representatives to the Sandringham Estate.

Speakers discussed how farmers can adapt to an increasingly uncertain future, from building healthier soils and using water more intelligently to reducing reliance on expensive inputs and looking after the people running farms.

Peter Moss, chief executive of Downforce Technologies, opened the conference by setting out the scale of the challenge, pointing to geopolitical instability, climate change, rising fertiliser costs and increasingly volatile global markets. 

He highlighted the importance of building healthy soils with greater organic matter and improved soil structure to provide a foundation for more resilient farming systems. 

That message was taken up by east Norfolk farmer Ali Cargill, who challenged the industry's reliance on artificial fertiliser. 

Farmers had effectively been made “fertiliser addicts”, he argued, pointing to the widening gap........

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