Pilot farms
1. Greece: Sustainable Olive Oil
Overview
With the largest increase in temperature and drop in rainfall, Mediterranean areas will experience the severity of climate change more than other places in Europe. Mediterranean agriculture, including olive cultivation, must adapt to new challenges that affect local water, energy and ecosystems.
On the Greek island of Crete, agriculture is already the largest user of water. Working with Cretan farmer cooperatives and their olive mills across 10 small (0.2 ha) olive farms, ELGO researchers will:
- Advance a new regenerative approach to cultivating olives, protecting soil while ensuring efficient use of water and other inputs.
- Develop and market a low-emissions olive oil brand, rewarding regenerative farmers and encouraging wider uptake.
The goal of this pilot projects is for other farmers in the area to be learn from these practices, be convinced of their effectiveness, and actively replicate them. These methods are easily applicable for any olive farm of the same scale in the Mediterranean and could be adapted by larger farms too.
Regenerative practices
- Cover crops
- No weed mowing during winter
- No tillage
- Weed mowing in spring and summer (soil mulching)
- Winter and summer pruning (and shredding of pruning)
- Application of organic material (winter)
- Irrigation according to meteorological and soil moisture data
- Application of fertigation
- Foliar application of fertilizers (if needed)
- Plant protection for minimizing the risk for pathogens
2. Poland: Implementing regenerative agriculture in a post-sovkhoz landscape
Overview
The structure of agricultural land in Poland reflects distinct historical processes of the last few centuries. Among these, the post-WW2 policy of agricultural collectivisation throughout the Stalinist period has left a clear mark. Over time, State Agricultural Farms, or PGRs (Polish: Państwowe Gospodarstwo Rolne) similar to Soviet sovkhoz or the East German Volkseigenes Gut, came to control approximately 10% of Poland’s arable land. Although liquidated in 1991, much of their land is still cultivated under similar structures, nowadays in private hands, leased from the government, or even by partly State-owned companies.
SatAgro has chosen to engage with post-PGR farms because their size (hundreds of thousands of hectares) and visibility translate to a relatively large impact of the implemented regenerative agricultural activities, and have good potential for scaling up. In addition, the value of satellite remote sensing – a cornerstone of the SatAgro platform – has already been recognised in several companies of this type, where satellite-enabled regular insight into crop conditions and the linked ability to implement precision treatments can bring obvious benefits.
When AgriCaptureCO2 becomes fully operational, the new services developed will be integrated as an extension of the existing SatAgro tools (soil management, profitability analysis) and information layers, reaching a larger audience already familiar with the rest of the platform. The involvement of Planet Labs Inc., a provider of high-resolution imagery, will facilitate the application of these technologies and services to increasingly small farms.
Regenerative practices
- Cover crops
- Crop rotations
- No/minimal tillage
- Variable Rate Application of fertiliser
- Organic amendments
3. UK: Scaling certified regenerative businesses
Overview
A sustainable farm is suited to its specific context. It provides continuous benefits for the environment and society, and economic viability for the farmer.
LEAF has supported and promoted this site-specific approach for 30 years, and certifies farms practicing Integrated Farm Management with the LEAF Marque. Farrington Oils in Northamptonshire (UK) is both a LEAF-certified business and LEAF demonstration farm.
We know that the decision to change and transform a farming system is a difficult one. We will support farmers in their own transition journey with:
- AgriCaptureCO2 data-driven decision support tools
- A short-term compensation scheme for regenerative practices
- Peer-to-peer knowledge exchange as well as learning opportunities
Regenerative practices
- No/minimal tillage
- Cover crops
- Intercropping (companion crops)
- Crop rotation
- Buffer/nature strips (beetle banks, flower-rich margins, winter food margins, grass margins), field ponds, and hedgerows
- Mulching
4. UK: Managing public lands to meet net neutrality goals
Overview
Lancashire County has 1.4 million inhabitants and covers 3,000 km2 in Western UK. Like many local, regional and national governments, Lancashire has recognised the climate emergency and committed to carbon neutrality, which it aims to achieve by 2030.
Using AgriCaptureCO2, Lancashire will explore how land under public ownership can be used to maximise carbon sequestration, and the associated costs from different options. This will include management options for former landsites, former collieries, and other reclaimed sites. It also includes making maximum use of garden and forestry waste processing to contribute to soil health.
The pilot is trialling management on 3ha plots at two sites: Midgeland Road, a former landfill site, and Chisnall Hall a former colliery which was reclaimed in the 1970s. Both trial sites are currently managed for silage and winter grazing.
The trial involves the application of non-waste biochar to 6ha of land at a rate of 10T/ha. 5ha of this land will be returned to agricultural management. The intention is to repeat biochar applications to farmed areas in 2023 and 2024.
Composted green waste has been applied to 1ha of the Chisnall Hall site at a rate of 630T/ha. This area will be tree planted with short rotation coppice with oak standards. The intention is that this will provide biomass for future biochar production, as well as biodiversity benefits.
Whilst the 15 Lancashire councils have little land under active agricultural management, we are collectively responsible for substantial areas of managed grasslands: parks; playing fields; school grounds; and highway verges, all of which are broadly comparable to agriculturally managed grasslands.
This trial has sought to identify the regenerative agricultural practices which could be applied to such land and have focused on the use of biochar, as well as compost created from green waste. These materials could be applied whilst still retaining the existing functionality of the land, so leveraging areas which may otherwise have limited potential to contribute to our councils’ net zero objectives.
The key target audiences are the local government sector as well as the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, engagement with which will amplify the practice to the wider farming community of Lancashire.
The work started in the AgriCaptureCO2 pilot project has developed into a significant strand of the county Councils climate strategy and we will be continuing to support and develop the pilot beyond the current project lifetime.
As both the waste and highways authority for Lancashire we are also investigating the potential for the green waste we collect, and the timber from roadside trees felled due to ash dieback disease, to be utilized for compost and biochar production which could then be applied to council land.
The potential uses of biochar are not currently widely recognised or understood in the UK. By providing training to staff from other local authorities, and by working with UK universities and regulatory authorities, we aim to show how the approach we have taken could be replicated across the public sector in England. This will permit the carbon storage capacity of council-owned land under different management regimes to be determined, and indicate the potential councils have to contribute to meeting their own net zero objectives through this.
Regenerative practices
- Land use conversion (agro-sylvo-pastoral systems)
- Nature strips and hedgerows
- Composting and biochar production for applying to agricultural soils
5. Serbia: Promoting sustainable agriculture without public subsidies
Overview
Every year, burning residual crop stubble contributes to low air quality in South-Eastern Europe. Other intensive agricultural practices common in the region (deep tillage, blanket applications of pesticide, large doses of fertilisers, and others) also result in damage to waterways, biodiversity, and air quality. Although legal limitations exist, these are not effectively enforced.
Small networks of farmers experimenting with regenerative practices provide the seeds to grow a new regenerative approach in the region. Working with these networks and their knowledge, GILab and UPOR will support interested farmers in taking the step towards regenerative practices.
AgriCaptureCO2 is piloting Soil Passport and Carbon credits schemes that are being developed through the project. This involves the provision of decision-support tools and financial benefits through access to voluntary carbon credit markets. This support will be essential for the larger scale transition from conventional to regenerative agriculture.
A number of medium-sized family farms are involved in this project. While most are already familiar with the application of regenerative practices, some are have not yet engaged in them. AgriCaptureCO2 is monitoring the effects of the regenerative practices on farms’ economies, as well as the impact on soil health, the environment and the climate and to shape the technology products to fit the requirements.
It is foreseen to scale up the scheme piloted during the project to other Serbian farms, but also in the pan-European context and globally.
Regenerative practices
- Cover crops
- No/minimal tillage
- Soil mulching (with crop residues)
- Integrated crop protection management
- Avoid unnecessary passages in the field and less soil compaction
- Measuring the needs of plants for nitrogen and appropriate application
6. Kenya: Climate-proofing flower production
Overview
The horticultural sector, specifically flower production, provides Kenya’s second largest export after tea. Horticulture is particularly sensitive to the impacts of climate change due to high-water demand and strict temperature requirements.
With the support of AgriCaptureCO2, two flower and vegetable producing Kenyan farms, Tambuzi and Flamingo Horticulture, are undertaking a series of pilot practices in their facilities. These aim to support greater emissions reductions through sequestration as well as the generation of carbon credits that will increase financial incentivisation.
These projects have assessed the suitability of several legal and voluntary carbon credit frameworks and their approaches for measuring, reporting and verifying carbon sequestration, Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions at the project and farm levels. Also assessed have been their approaches to dealing with structural considerations that present risk and opportunity for generating high-integrity carbon credits at these farms. This included ways in which projects can be developed in alignment with global Paris Agreement goals.
Involving the whole supply chain for cut flowers, AgriCaptureCO2 will provide a clear path to building resilience, reducing emissions and increasing revenue from carbon credits for farmers in Kenya. Building from a representative sample, we will scale to offer opportunities to a critical mass of producers.
Regenerative practices
- Timely pruning and cover crops to reduce plant transpiration and water use
- Soil amelioration to improve water retention capacity
- Reduced use of chemicals (pesticides, fertilisers, etc.)
- Application of conservation tillage
- Promotion of biodiversity and ecosystem services
