PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
It is widely recognised that the primary sector has significant potential to mitigate climate change, given that it has been responsible for around a third of all carbon emissions since 1850 from land use. Though agriculture in the EU accounts for only about 2% of GDP and 5% of employment, it is responsible for 45% of total land use and 9.6% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (according to figures for the EU-27 in 2008).
OBJECTIVES
The overall goal of the LIFE-AGRICARE project was to demonstrate that the introduction of new integrated agriculture applications, incorporating precision farming technologies, have significant potential in terms of energy saving and GHG reductions. The project’s specific objectives included:
RESULTS
LIFE-AGRICARE developed and demonstrated integrated and innovative agricultural soil management through a combination of conservation tillage and precision farming, aided by the GPS-guided control of farming machinery. It showed that new conservation agriculture (CA) and precision farming (PF) technologies provide environmental benefits, and increase farm incomes in some cases in rural areas of Italy. The project helped spread knowledge about innovative agronomic practices, demonstrated these could create jobs, and furthered the adoption of precision agriculture guidelines at national level.
The project demonstrated the application of CA and PF techniques on a 25 ha site in Vallevecchia (Veneto). It carried out more than 80 trials over three seasons (2014-2017) in four crops (wheat, canola, maize and soy bean), with four tillage solutions and uniform/variable crop management (seeding, fertilisation and pest control measures). The analysis showed that ‘Minimum Tillage’ increased yields and slightly reduced energy consumption, while ‘No Tillage’ significantly reduced energy consumption at the cost of reduced yields if PF is not used. All the trials with PF techniques showed increased yields and reduced costs with respect to the homogenous agronomic treatments. The beneficiaries identified the need for a more uniform and standardised approach at national and EU levels to provide robust results that can be applied in the highly variable framework of CA and PF (e.g. variability of soil properties, climate and weather conditions, crops, agronomic practices), suggesting that further long-term studies are needed.
The main project outputs included the long-term modelling of environmental benefits (e.g. soil carbon stock and CO2 emissions) based on the trial results; suitability maps and analysis for the introduction of CA/PF practices in three Italian regions; a Web application for the assessment of suitability of the introduction of CA/PF at farm level; and recommendations for policymakers for the dissemination and development of CA/PF practices, including suggestions for a related carbon credit market. The project team also produced an atlas on CA/PF practices that summarised the main project results and outputs, and conducted a diverse campaign to disseminate information about the tested practices. After evaluating the environmental benefits, the project team proved that CA and PF techniques could improve environmental management (e.g. soil erosion, CO2 emissions, soil nutrient control), improve energy use efficiency during farming activities, and conserve natural areas and species in regions of agronomic and tourist interest. An evaluation of fuel and energy savings due to conservative agronomic practices showed a direct reduction of up to 3 000 kg of CO2 eq/ha per year.
At policy level, the project contributed to the implementation of the 2014-2020 Common Agriculture Policy and the Rural Development Programmes at regional level. It is consistent with the EU Environment Action Programme, which highlights sustainable agriculture as an essential activity for environmental protection and efficient resource use while maintaining productivity. The project is also in line with the Directive on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (128/2009/EC) and the EU Soil Thematic Strategy. Moreover, project results were included in the guidelines on precision farming development in Italy (published by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture). The project identified the main barriers to CA/PF introduction, which are the lack of expertise in the supply chain, the high initial investments required, and a lack of detailed soil data at regional and farm level.
The considerable number of different trials undertaken makes the project a good benchmark in Italy for the analysis of the proposed approaches. Its demonstration value could aid the replication of CA/PF approaches in other Italian regions and EU countries. From the project’s socio-economic analysis, it was confirmed that an increase in the adoption of innovative CA/PF practices had occurred in Italy (+2.4% in the 2014-2016 period). Extrapolating the results up to three years after the project suggested a total increase of about 5-6% is expected to be achieved from 2014 to 2020. Furthermore, it was shown that this is creating specialised jobs in the area near the project site. During the project, about 180 new jobs were created in the Camposampiero municipality, mainly through the production of tractors and other agronomic machines. For instance, associated beneficiary Maschio Gaspardo increased its production of precision farming machines following greater market interest in this technology.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report (see "Read more" section).
