Compatibility of Agricultural Management Practices and Types of Farming in the EU to enhance Climate Change Mitigation and Soil Health.
The Catch-C project assesses the farm-compatibility of ‘Best Management Practices’ (BMPs) that aim to promote productivity, climate change mitigation, and soil quality. Information collected on current management will be spatially organised with the help of a typology of the main farm types and agro-ecological zones across Europe. Biophysical impacts of management practices will be assessed from a large set of current field experiments by the partners. BMPs will be formulated, along with their trade-offs and synergies between productivity, climate change mitigation, and soil quality. The project will identify barriers against adoption and formulate ways to remove these. In interaction with policy makers, Catch-C will develop guidelines for policies that will support the adoption of BMPs and that are consistent with regional, agro-ecological and farming contexts.
General Objectives
Catch-C will firstly (WP2) set up a typology of the main farm types and agro-ecological zones across Europe. This frame, coupled to a pan-European database of socio-economic and biophysical data, will be used for spatially organising the information collected on current management and on the impacts expected from changes in management.
Secondly, biophysical impacts of management practices will be assessed primarily from a large set of current field experiments, executed by the participants. BMPs will be formulated, along with their trade-offs and synergies between productivity, climate change mitigation, and soil quality. Farmers, however, often do not adopt BMPs.
Thirdly, the project will identify the barriers against adoption, and will formulate ways to remove these. Catch-C will survey farmer views on BMPs in all participant countries, assess costs and benefits of implementation, identify technical and ecological bottlenecks preventing adoption, develop a decision support tool, and prioritize innovation requirements to address bottlenecks.
Policy measures can promote adoption of BMPs in various ways, such as voluntary measures, regulation, and economic incentives. In interaction with policy makers, Catch-C will develop guidelines for policies that will support the adoption of BMPs; and that are consistent with regional agro-environmental and farming contexts.
Dissemination includes dissemination to the farmers and policy communities, and scientific publication. The project results on BMPs, their adoption and feasibility in different farm types and environments will raise awareness about the pros and cons of respective management and policy options. Farmers and policy communities will be reached via workshops, brochures, farmers press and web-based tools.
University of Cordoba role
To establish and further improve the farm-compatibility of the identified Best Management Practices with the FTZ Units over Europe. These analyses will show the applicability of a wide range of Best Management Practices (BMPs) at the farm level, their costs to the farmer, the effectiveness, and the likely uptake across a wide range of farm types.
- Developing a Compatibility Frame as research tool
- Surveys and interviews with farmers about their ideas for implementing BMPs
- Assessing agro-technical, ecological and economic barriers against adoption of BMPs
- Listing and prioritizing innovations that will help to overcome these barriers
- Developing a decision grid for farmers to show the effectiveness, costs and benefits, and other consequences of adopting BMPs tailored to major FTZs over Europe.
- Deriving practical guidelines, rules of thumb, and other operational tools for farmers. These may include target levels for SOM%; annual organic input requirement to sustain target SOM%; farm level sustainability indicators; tools to help implement control strategies for soil borne pathogens; decision tools for optimizing farm nutrient management.