EIP-AGRI, agriculture and climate change

Over the past few years, EIP-AGRI has carried out a lot of work related to climate change to foster a more sustainable and productive agriculture and forestry. This includes Focus Groups on New forest practices & climate change, Water & agriculture, Reducing emissions in cattle farming, Grazing for Carbon, Bee health, Frost damage …. and also events and publications, inspirational ideas from Operational Groups and other innovative projects and much more. Find a summary below.

To find out more about EIP-AGRI climate related activities, follow the hashtag #EIPagriClimate on Twitter and LinkedIn. Find a summary of the highlights of the campaign here.

Check out the EIP-AGRI newsletter from January 2020 which is dedicated to agriculture and climate change.

EIP-AGRI Focus Groups

EIP-AGRI Focus Groups are temporary groups of selected experts focusing on a specific subject, sharing knowledge and experience. Several of them have worked on climate-related issues, click on each link below to find reports, factsheets and more:

• Agroforestry: woody vegetation
• Bee health
• Carbon storage in arable farming
• Circular horticulture
• Ecological Focus Areas
• Fertiliser efficiency
• Frost damage
• Grazing for Carbon
• High Nature Value farming
• IPM for Brassica
• IPM for soil-borne diseases
• Mixed farming systems
• Moving from source to sink in arable farming
• New forest practices & climate change
• Non-chemical weed management
• Nutrient recycling
• Organic farming - optimising arable yields
• Profitability of permanent grassland
• Reducing emissions in cattle farming
• Renewable energy on the farm
• Soil organic matter
• Soil salinisation
• Sustainable mobilisation of forest biomass
• Tropical crops
• Water & agriculture: adaptive strategies at farm level

EIP-AGRI events

The EIP-AGRI holds workshops and seminars on specific topics. Click on each link to find reports, presentations and more from events related to climate issues:

• EIP-AGRI Workshop: 'Connecting innovative projects: Water & Agriculture'
• EIP-AGRI Workshop: 'Cropping for the future: networking for crop rotation and crop diversification'
• EIP-AGRI Workshop 'Opportunities for Agriculture and Forestry in the Circular Economy'
• EIP-AGRI Workshop: Opportunities for farm diversification in the circular bioeconomy
• EIP-AGRI workshop 'Organic is Operational'
• EIP-AGRI workshop ‘New value chains from multifunctional forests’
• Agri-Innovation summit 2019
• EIP-AGRI Workshop: Shaping the EU mission 'Caring for soil is caring for life'
• EIP-AGRI Workshop: 'Towards carbon-neutral agriculture'
• EIP-AGRI Workshop: 'Tools for environmental farm performance'
• EIP-AGRI Seminar: 'Healthy soils for Europe: sustainable management through knowledge and practice'

EIP-AGRI publications

As well as the Focus Group reports, the EIP-AGRI Service Point has produced the following publications which are relevant to climate issues:

• EIP-AGRI Brochure Sustainable livestock farming
• EIP-AGRI Brochure Innovation for European forestry
• EIP-AGRI Brochure Water and Agriculture
• EIP-AGRI Brochure Soil organic matter matters
• EIP-AGRI Brochure 'Climate-smart agriculture: Solutions for resilient farming and forestry'

EIP-AGRI Videos

Watch these videos on examples of climate-related initiatives from the EIP-AGRI network:

• AGRI challenge: soil fertility through carbon storage
• AGRI challenge: soil salinisation
• Agroecology clip
• AGRI challenge: Crop diversification in grassland
• You can also take a look at the Climate-change playlist on the EIP-AGRI Youtube Channel.  If you would like to add your video to the playlist, please get in touch supportfacility@eip-agri.eu.

Inspirational ideas from the network

Articles on examples of climate-related initiatives from the EIP-AGRI network:

• A kit to improve soil biological activity (France)
• Agroecology for sustainable soils (France)
• Agroecology for sustainable soils (France)
• Agroforestry- a win-win for nature and the farmer (Germany)
• Climate-friendly practices (DE, IT, SE)
• Cutting atmospheric carbon: a central role for soils (France)
• Dealing with water scarcity (Spain)
• Grazing management with a heart for soil health (UK)
• Increasing farm profitability while cutting carbon emissions, a toolkit developed by farmers for farmers  (UK)
• Inspiration across borders: Dutch dairy farmers visit Irish farms (Netherlands and Ireland)
• Looking after the soil to bring life and carbon back (Austria)
• Mixed farming in the Aveyron river basin (France)
• Pasture for pollinators (UK)
• Preventing forest fires in Portugal (Portugal)
• Pulses- superfood for the future (EU)
• Sprinkler systems as protection against frost damage (Poland)

Horizon 2020 projects

• CIRCULAR AGRONOMICS - Efficient Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorus cycling in the European Agri-food System and related up- and down-stream processes to mitigate emissions: website - CORDIS
• CONSOLE - CONtract SOLutions for Effective and lasting delivery of agri-environmental-climate public goods by EU agriculture and forestry: CORDIS (05/2019-04/2022)
• Contracts2.0 - Co-design of novel contract models for innovative agri-environmental-climate measures and for valorisation of environmental public goods: CORDIS (05/2019-04/2023)
• NEURICE - New commercial EUropean RICE (Oryza sativa) harbouring salt tolerance alleles to protect the rice sector against climate change and apple snail (Pomacea insularum) invasion: website - CORDIS (03/2016-02/2020)
• STARGATE - reSilienT fARminG by Adaptive microclimaTe managEment: CORDIS (10/2019-09/2023)
• TomGEM - A holistic multi-actor approach towards the design of new tomato varieties and management practices to improve yield and quality in the face of climate change: website - CORDIS (03/2016-02/2020)

More relevant multi-actor projects and thematic networks here.

LIFE projects

• FARMLIFE contributes to a climate-resilient Europe by sharing information, developing and demonstrating innovative approaches and bringing people together - to enable the transition to wards climate-resilient agroforestry.

• AgriAdapt has developed a software tool to evaluate energy consumption, GHG emissions, and carbon storage on the farm. Results, a manual with good practices, and other interesting reports can be found on the project website. 

Other

• European Commissions's Horizon Europe soil mission
• The European Commission's strategy for climate-neutrality by 2050, including the European Green Deal, the Biodiversity strategy and Farm to Fork strategy.
• DG AGRI’s AgriResearch factsheet on Soils which includes a number of funding opportunities
• EIP-AGRI Newsletter January 2020 which focuses on climate issues
• "Climate" search on the EIP-AGRI database of Operational Groups
• Summary page of soil-related issues
• To find out more about EIP-AGRI climate related activities, follow the hashtag #EIPagriClimate on Twitter and LinkedIn