Soil is essential for food security and life overall, but many risks exist to the quantity and quality of EU soil stocks. CAP funding can help reduce these risks and two young organic farmers from Malta took advantage of such an opportunity to co-finance their investment in soil protection measures.
Wind and rain erosion pose problems for soil protection in Malta. Simple solutions exist including the use of walls and trees as windbreaks. This was the thinking behind a project by Abigail and David Galea who renovated stone walls and planted olive tree stands on their organic farm to reduce soil erosion risks.
Traditional construction techniques were used to restore the dry-stone walls, which provide landscape features as well as biodiversity habitats while protecting soils from wind erosion. The olive trees not only help better bond the soil, and so limit threats from rainwater run-off, but they also provide a nutritious food crop and add to the islands’ green infrastructure. Read more about this multi-purpose CAP project supporting the prosperity of a young farming couple’s business while simultaneously protecting soil stocks on EU islands.
