PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Soil performs vital ecological, social and economic services for society. Its importance for the production of food, fibre and wood has been long recognised, as has its role as a surface for housing and infrastructure development. However, it is now recognised that soil also filters and buffers contaminants, allowing us to have clean drinking water, it acts as a pool of biodiversity, and it acts as a sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide. It even provides an archive of cultural heritage.
However, soil is subjected to some serious threats, making it a priority environmental issue at European level - as recognised by the EU Soil Protection Strategy. The main threats come from: inadequate farming and forestry practices; urban and industrial development; tourism; climate change; and major hydro-geological events such as flooding and landslides.
These threats can cause soil degradation in the form of: soil erosion; a decline in inorganic matter content; the loss of soil biodiversity; soil contamination; salinisation; soil compaction; and soil sealing. Arid areas are particularly vulnerable to processes of soil erosion, leading to desertification, which is very difficult to rectify.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE REGEN FARMING project’s main objective was to demonstrate successful regenerative agricultural practices for preventing soil degradation and improving soil quality. The project would test potential good practices in pasture management under different climatic and agricultural conditions.
It would also test regenerative practices for soil conservation, including the use of crops with minimum tillage, perennial crops, organic fertilisers, direct seeding and rotational grazing. These practices would be tested in-situ, on agricultural sites.The project team would develop easy-to-use, fast and cheap diagnostic and monitoring methodologies to evaluate soil health, such as Agro-ecosystem Health Cards (TSAs) and chromatograms. Monitoring would then assess the environmental and socio-economic impact of the regenerative practices on farms. By identifying the best practices in land use and management, the project hoped to promote real improvements in soil quality and biodiversity conservation. To support this, it would also provide quality training to farmers and technicians in the field of regenerative practices and sustainable agriculture. It thus expected to make an important contribution to the achievement of the goals of the EU’s Soil Thematic Strategy and the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy.
RESULTS
The LIFE REGEN FARMING project demonstrated the environmental, economic and social benefits of an animal farming scheme based on regenerative practices. The following regenerative techniques were implemented in three areas under different agroclimatic and livestock system conditions: rotational grazing plans; direct sowing/minimum tillage; and use of organic fertilisers.
As a result, a significant improvement was observed in soil quality and biodiversity conservation, namely:
- 10% increase in carbon fixation in the grass;
- 10% decrease in the carbon footprint;
- 7% increase in soil fertility (more specifically, particulate organic matter);
- 3% increase in plant diversity;
- 10-15% improvement of biomass production (pasture biomass);
- 9% reduction in costs of forage; and
- 5% increase in economic viability (lower production costs).
