Carbon Farming

The North Sea Region (NSR) faces soil degradation and biodiversity loss resulting from present-day agricultural production processes. Adopting carbon sequestration (CS) techniques in land management can help to reverse these processes and play a crucial role in food security and climate change mitigation. Greening the food supply chain through carbon farming (CF) will restore the organic component of the soil; actively remove atmospheric CO2, increasing soil biodiversity, and providing better nutrient and water holding capacity for crops.The NSR has strong interrelated food production chains, which lack a long-term vision on sustainable soil management and green production processes. The absence of sound, economically viable business cases and a lack of awareness of the potential of CF approaches amongst economic players is hindering their rapid adoption. This will be a key factor in progress towards greening the NSR agrifood sector. Involvement throughout the integrated value chain is required to allow this progress to be sustainable and durable.This project will test and validate economically viable business cases for CS in whole agri-food chain and for third parties to compensate their environmental footprint. It will also raise awareness on the possibilities and benefits of CS amongst entire supply chains. Results are an increased awareness of the economic and ecologic potential of CS, improved soil physics, and 10,000 tons of CO2 (equivalent)/acre sequestered in soil.Indicator: Enhanced uptake of carbon farming in the agrifood chain to reduce carbon emissions above ground.
Target (Unit): 10,000 Tons of Co2 (equivalent) sequestered in farming ground.
Definition: Validated business models demonstrate the economic viability of the implementation of CS techniques in the agricultural production processes. The calculation is based on the carbon storage capacity for the number of hectares owned by landowners. Indicator: Optimise the application of carbon sequestration techniques to increase the effects and impact.
Target (Unit): 20 % improved soil quality in structure, water holding, biology.
Definition: CS improves soil structure by C storage. In doing so, it improves system input efficiency, which could reduce chemical inputs to farms. Measured improvements in soil C over 3 years on research farms compared to a baseline set at project start Indicator: Increased awareness of carbon sequestration as a technique to reduce carbon emission in the food supply chain and as a -regional- option to compensate for carbon emissions.
Target (Unit): 10 Number of economic actors in the food supply chain (farmers, producers/processors, retailers, consumers) and third parties (i.e. outside the food supply chain).
Definition: Interested parties that are aware of the potential that CS have on the reduction of carbon emission in the atmosphere. Through surveys, a baseline value will be determined at the start and compared to a post-implementation value.Indicator : Number of green products, services and processes piloted and/ or adopted by the project,
Target : 9,
Indicator : Number of enterprises participating in cross-border, transnational or interregional research projects,
Target : 25,
Indicator : Number of research institutions participating in cross-border, transnational or interregional research projects,
Target : 2,
Indicator : Number of organizations/ enterprises adopting new solutions by project end,
Target : 15,
Indicator : Number of organizations/ enterprises informed about new solutions by project end,
Target : 10000,