Last week, the European Commission today published the final report of a two-year research on how to establish and implement carbon farming in the EU: “Technical guidance manual: establishment and implementation of carbon farming mechanisms based on in the results in the EU”.
The purpose of carbon sequestration from soils is to remove carbon from the atmosphere, through photosynthesis in plants and its storage as stable and long-lived forms of organic matter in the soil. For this to happen, it is necessary for farmers to become aware of the need to make changes in traditional agricultural practices, seeking to provide more organic matter, make it more stable, and / or delay its decomposition.
It is important to note that these practices have great benefits both in agricultural productivity and in mitigating climate change. However, if the farmer decides to stop doing them and return to his old practices, the organic carbon that had been stored in the soil is again released into the atmosphere. So, it is extremely important that the change is permanent.
For this reason, the European Commission announced in the “Farm to Fork” Strategy a carbon agriculture initiative to promote a new green business model that rewards the climate-friendly practices of land managers based on climate benefits that they provide.
We want to thank our partner Matteo Zavalloni for providing us with this information.
