Pilot network of climate-positive organic farms

The conservation and enhancement of Earth’s natural terrestrial carbon sinks such as soils and plants, forests, farmed lands and wetlands is crucial. The European Green Deal gives research and innovation (R&I) a significant role to play in supporting the design and implementation of policies that will ensure the achievement of the EU’s climate objectives. Organic farming relies on management practices that contribute to climate change mitigation, with additional benefits for the environment and biodiversity. The organic sector also has a role to play in the implementation of the EU carbon farming initiative as developed in the 2021 Communication on “Sustainable Carbon Cycles”.

Proposals should:

• Establish a pilot network of existing and newly converted commercial certified organic farms and research stations representative of the main organic farming production systems (both plant and animal production) and regions in the EU.
• Provide for the collection at farm and landscape level of data relevant to organic farming and to climate change and other environmental objectives;
• Implement carbon farming techniques and analyse their outcomes, also in terms of better farm management; analyse costs of carbon farming management practices and revenue possibilities as well as related risk and challenges; develop and/or test monitoring, reporting and verification systems;
• Enhance sharing of knowledge and best practice on adaptation to and mitigation of climate change in the organic sector, including with regard to carbon farming, with attention also to regions where the organic sector is less developed, and support tailored training and advisory services;
• Ensure that project outcomes are made available also beyond the organic farming sector, including to other farmers who focus on low-input farming, circular agriculture and agroecology;
• Establish links with projects under the topics on a demonstration network for climate-smart farming (HORIZON-CL6-2021-CLIMATE-01-04 – project “Climate Farm Demo”, and HORIZON-CL6-2022-CLIMATE-01-03), on agroecological approaches for climate change mitigation, resilient agricultural production and enhanced biodiversity (HORIZON-CL6-2021-CLIMATE-01-05), and on improving yields in organic cropping systems (HORIZON-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-3), as well as with the planned partnership on agro-ecology living labs and the Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”.

This topic should involve the effective contribution of SSH disciplines.