Quantifying the impact of farming practices on soil health in arable lands

Agricultural land covers nearly half of the EU, with two-thirds dedicated to arable crops. Farming practices, especially in combination, are critical for maintaining soil functions such as structure, nutrient cycling, and water retention — key to food production and ecosystem resilience. There is a need to better understand how different farming practices impact the composition and functions of soil biodiversity, carbon capture and storage, GHG emissions, water infiltration and retention. Additionally, more knowledge is needed to understand how multiple threats and farming practices simultaneously interact and affect soil health (e.g. the interplay between various farming practices and climate change).

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) supports sustainable resource management to combat climate change and biodiversity loss[[See Sustainable agricultural practices and methods - European Commission]]. In the 2023-2027 period, actions to improve soil health are expected to cover nearly 47%[[ COM(2023) 707 final, see EUR-Lex - 52023DC0707 - EN - EUR-Lex]] of EU’s agricultural area, backed by an estimated EUR 50.6 million (measured via Result Indicator 19[[RI.19 - 'UAA under supported commitments favourable to soil management to improve soil quality and biota’]]) and around 1,000 Operational Groups under the EU CAP Network are expected to address soil. CAP also sets baseline standards conditions (GAEC) to prevent soil degradation and protect biodiversity and water.

Despite these measures, there is a need to build on existing CAP measures (GAEC, CAP Eco-schemes and AECM[[Agri-environment-climate Measures]] under Pillar II) for stronger and refined incentives for climate- and environment-friendly approaches, such as organic farming, agroecology, and carbon farming. Crucially, there is still a need for robust scientific evidence on the impact of farming practices—individually and in combination—on soil health at both local and EU scales. Quantitative coefficients capturing these impacts across different pedo-climatic conditions and cropping systems over time remain a key research gap.

Proposed activities should:

• Define and map homogeneous soil-use and pedo-climatic regions in EU arable lands, leveraging existing Earth observation datasets and further develop (iMAP) coefficients linking farming practices to soil health indicators (aligning with the Soil Mission Implementation Plan and proposed Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience). Work should focus on soil biodiversity, carbon capture and storage, GHG emissions, and water infiltration/retention, considering both CAP-supported and other farming practices.
• Quantify the impact of farming practices on soil health across major pedo-climatic regions and arable crops in the EU. Establish clear links between farming practices, land use (arable, pasture, etc.) and types of crops for each soil use and pedo-climatic region, considering the defining soil and climate properties. Focus should be on identifying synergies and trade-offs among these practices, supported by refined impact estimates under current and potential adoption scenarios at the EU level. Practices should comply with GAEC standards and their integration with other CAP interventions, such as “Eco-Schemes" or/and “Agri-environment-climate measures” under Pillar II, but not exclusively.
• Develop and expand an inventory of farming practices (e.g. organic fertilisation, no-tillage) that support GAECs and Eco-Schemes for soil health, as outlined in national CAP Strategic Plans. Building on the work of the Joint Research Centre[[See Quantifying the impact of sustainable farming practices on environment and climate - Publications Office of the EU]], the inventory should cover various farming systems and alternative approaches, including organic, agroecological, and regenerative practices.
• Select a set of soil health indicators (SOC, water retention capacity, acidity, conductivity, biodiversity, soil erosion, nutrients, diffuse contamination, etc.) considering the Mission Soil Implementation Plan, the SML and the results produced by the Mission portfolio of projects, to quantify farming practices effects.
• Enhance and expand existing online databases and visualisations by integrating data from previous activities (e.g. pedo-climatic regions, arable lands, cropping systems) to improve user accessibility. Streamline and automate updates with new knowledge, focusing on EU primary scientific literature, by leveraging AI to accelerate meta-analysis and drive continuous improvement.
• Develop a dynamic, potentially automatically updated model to compare, analyse and evaluate scenarios assessing the impacts of individual farming practices (e.g. conventional tillage vs. no-tillage, organic amendment vs. mineral fertilisation, etc.) as well as integrated farming strategies (e.g. conservation, organic, agroecology, regenerative).
• Identify and analyse the limitations of map, indicators, model, measurements, and results obtained. Produce a gap analysis to address remaining soil health challenges in Member States, considering what is proposed in national CAP Strategic Plans, and which future R&I could fill.

Proposals should demonstrate a route towards open access, longevity, sustainability and interoperability of knowledge and outputs through close collaboration with the European Union Soil Observatory (EUSO) and SoilWise. Particular efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of this topic is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).

Proposals are encouraged to leverage, where relevant, the data, expertise and services provided by European research infrastructures[[ The catalogue of European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) research infrastructures portfolio can be browsed from ESFRI website https://ri-portfolio.esfri.eu/]] and results from prior research projects, such as the EJP Soil data repositories[[ See Knowledge Sharing Platform]]. The analysis should build on and align with relevant efforts undertaken by the European Evaluation Helpdesk and the JRC within the frame of the iMAP project. Furthermore, proposals should include consultation with national agricultural organisations and private companies to ensure diverse perspectives and expertise are integrated into the analysis.

Proposals should allocate dedicated tasks and adequate resources for coordination and joint activities with other relevant projects and initiatives funded under the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe.’ This includes active engagement with relevant cluster activities, particularly with projects funded under the Horizon Europe Partnership on Agroecology, and collaboration with the JRC to ensure alignment and synergies.