Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TUdi (Transforming Unsustainable management of soils in key agricultural systems in EU and China. Developing an integrated platform of alternatives to reverse soil degradation.)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-07-01 bis 2022-12-31
Soil is a scarce resource capital for increasing and maintaining food production and the provision of other ecosystems services, e.g. carbon sequestration, ... Sustainability of cropping systems and food security cannot be achieved without a sustainable use of soil. This is recognized by multiple national and international specific initiatives like the UN Convention against Desertification, the European Union Mission the EU Common Agricultural Policy.
However, soil degradation has been a recurring issue from ancient agrarian civilizations (e.g. ancient Rome) to date. Currently, although there is a wealth of scientific knowledge on soil degradation processes, is still challenging to address this topic by land users. This is not surprising, if we consider that to address soil degradation in agricultural soils any given approach needs to be tailored to the specific conditions of each farm, considering physical realities (soil and crop type, climate, topography, …) as well as socioeconomic realities (e.g. farm income and investment capacity, cost of the implemented solutions, …). Coupled with this, is the limited access to many farmers to extension services that could perform this tailoring and guidance through their initial phase of implementation.
The TUdi project attempts to contribute and address, with practical ways, soil degradation at farm scale in European, Chinese and New Zealander cropping systems (cereal based rotations, tree crops and grasslands) through these specific objectives:
1- Document, at farm scale, soil degradation processes and soil restoration strategies, quantifying the effects of soil remediation and good fertilizers use strategies.
2- Develop strategies for enhancing the quality of soils for food production in agricultural systems.
3- Develop and validate stakeholder-oriented solutions to evaluate soil status and socioeconomic implications for key agricultural systems.
4- Develop a set of decision support tools at field scale to implement soil restoring solutions suitable for adaptation to EU and Chinese conditions integrating previous cooperative research.
5- Build and implement the project around the requests of a community of stakeholders following EIP-Agri and Open Science approach.
6-Create a community of soil care stakeholders and scientists for the main agricultural systems across EU, China and New Zealand.
However, soil degradation has been a recurring issue from ancient agrarian civilizations (e.g. ancient Rome) to date. Currently, although there is a wealth of scientific knowledge on soil degradation processes, is still challenging to address this topic by land users. This is not surprising, if we consider that to address soil degradation in agricultural soils any given approach needs to be tailored to the specific conditions of each farm, considering physical realities (soil and crop type, climate, topography, …) as well as socioeconomic realities (e.g. farm income and investment capacity, cost of the implemented solutions, …). Coupled with this, is the limited access to many farmers to extension services that could perform this tailoring and guidance through their initial phase of implementation.
The TUdi project attempts to contribute and address, with practical ways, soil degradation at farm scale in European, Chinese and New Zealander cropping systems (cereal based rotations, tree crops and grasslands) through these specific objectives:
1- Document, at farm scale, soil degradation processes and soil restoration strategies, quantifying the effects of soil remediation and good fertilizers use strategies.
2- Develop strategies for enhancing the quality of soils for food production in agricultural systems.
3- Develop and validate stakeholder-oriented solutions to evaluate soil status and socioeconomic implications for key agricultural systems.
4- Develop a set of decision support tools at field scale to implement soil restoring solutions suitable for adaptation to EU and Chinese conditions integrating previous cooperative research.
5- Build and implement the project around the requests of a community of stakeholders following EIP-Agri and Open Science approach.
6-Create a community of soil care stakeholders and scientists for the main agricultural systems across EU, China and New Zealand.
The project has compiled a large number of studies from participant countries, including experiments and commercial farms that already ongoing for several years. These studies, which include examples of good management and soil restoration practices, as well as counterexamples of soil degradation problems, have been aggregated into a database containing technical and socioeconomic information with examples in different conditions.
TUdi has also started compiling and detailing different strategies that combine enhancement of soil quality with agricultural production, through a detailed review of available technical and scientific literature as well as a search for solutions not reported in the literature among stakeholders and project partners. The project has created a permanent network of stakeholders, regularly convened for technical consultations, like this, and to receive feedback to ensure that the project is steered in according to the end-users needs. The project has also started experiments to provide specific technical details needed by stakeholders for implementation of soil restoring solutions like, e.g. doses of compost and cover crops to use to restore extremely degraded soils...
The project has also started gathering socioeconomic information in different farming conditions across participating countries to perform a cost-benefit analysis and an evaluation of business opportunities for the soil restoring solutions covered in TUdi. This information will be used to determine the barriers and opportunities for the soil restoring solutions studied under specific conditions, and to provide advice to decision makers on how to best introduce them.
The project is developing eight decision support tools (DSTs) to help farmers and other stakeholders to introduce practices that maintain and restore soil health. The preliminary design of eight DSTS has been completed, as well as that of an additional economic toolbox to provide an appraisal of the cost/benefit implications for a given solution. The purpose of this toolbox is provide this appraisal although the project assumes that farmers, and societal, decisions on sustainability are taken in a broader context not exclusively economic. These tools have been decided upon after consultation with the community of stakeholders to address the key problems raised by them. They will cover sustainable fertilization, reduction of soil compaction, prevention of soil erosion, use of cover crops, and other topics. The project partners are now working on the first preliminary versions, which will be complemented by other non-digital materials.
To improve the connection between available solutions with specific needs of farmers, TUdi uses the stable network of participating stakeholders created in each country, and is articulated at TUdi level. This network has been complemented by networking with existing EIP-Agri operational groups to disseminate key project results and it will be followed by a proactive dissemination through the tools provided by the EIP-Agri following the open science approach.
TUdi is mainly a cooperation project aimed at reinforcing ties and creating lasting collaborations among teams and stakeholders across Europe, China, and New Zealand. For this, the project has been promoting joint activities and pushing for close engagement in specific tasks by partners to help create and cement ties among individuals, teams, and institutions.
TUdi has also started compiling and detailing different strategies that combine enhancement of soil quality with agricultural production, through a detailed review of available technical and scientific literature as well as a search for solutions not reported in the literature among stakeholders and project partners. The project has created a permanent network of stakeholders, regularly convened for technical consultations, like this, and to receive feedback to ensure that the project is steered in according to the end-users needs. The project has also started experiments to provide specific technical details needed by stakeholders for implementation of soil restoring solutions like, e.g. doses of compost and cover crops to use to restore extremely degraded soils...
The project has also started gathering socioeconomic information in different farming conditions across participating countries to perform a cost-benefit analysis and an evaluation of business opportunities for the soil restoring solutions covered in TUdi. This information will be used to determine the barriers and opportunities for the soil restoring solutions studied under specific conditions, and to provide advice to decision makers on how to best introduce them.
The project is developing eight decision support tools (DSTs) to help farmers and other stakeholders to introduce practices that maintain and restore soil health. The preliminary design of eight DSTS has been completed, as well as that of an additional economic toolbox to provide an appraisal of the cost/benefit implications for a given solution. The purpose of this toolbox is provide this appraisal although the project assumes that farmers, and societal, decisions on sustainability are taken in a broader context not exclusively economic. These tools have been decided upon after consultation with the community of stakeholders to address the key problems raised by them. They will cover sustainable fertilization, reduction of soil compaction, prevention of soil erosion, use of cover crops, and other topics. The project partners are now working on the first preliminary versions, which will be complemented by other non-digital materials.
To improve the connection between available solutions with specific needs of farmers, TUdi uses the stable network of participating stakeholders created in each country, and is articulated at TUdi level. This network has been complemented by networking with existing EIP-Agri operational groups to disseminate key project results and it will be followed by a proactive dissemination through the tools provided by the EIP-Agri following the open science approach.
TUdi is mainly a cooperation project aimed at reinforcing ties and creating lasting collaborations among teams and stakeholders across Europe, China, and New Zealand. For this, the project has been promoting joint activities and pushing for close engagement in specific tasks by partners to help create and cement ties among individuals, teams, and institutions.
To conduct a large-scale international pilot project that demonstrates how encouraging scientists and companies to develop soil healing solutions in response to stakeholder demands can accelerate the adoption of soil management and fertilization practices, leading to improved soil health.
To offer novel approaches for accessing technologies that facilitate rapid training and implementation of soil healing and improved fertilization solutions, tailored to the needs and business models of diverse stakeholders through various complementary strategies. For instance, these may include free ready to use digital decision tools; freely available training materials, open access algorithms for decision support tools that can be adapted or developed further by any stakeholder to meet specific requirements, ... all accompanied with freely available data for testing.
To validate and disseminate eight DSTs, complemented by a ninth socioeconomic toolbox, to help farmers and technicians implement solutions to deliver healthy soils for 75% of the acreage of the three cropping systems (cereal-based rotations, tree orchards, and grasslands) considered in TUdi in the EU and Chinese study regions, providing indicators for their impact on soil quality.
To transform a unique set of mostly long-term experiments, conducted across a broad range of cropping systems and farming types, into a reference tool for researchers and stakeholders. This will help further develop soil restoring and fertilization practices, and create a networking platform for transdisciplinary studies across the EU and China.
To offer novel approaches for accessing technologies that facilitate rapid training and implementation of soil healing and improved fertilization solutions, tailored to the needs and business models of diverse stakeholders through various complementary strategies. For instance, these may include free ready to use digital decision tools; freely available training materials, open access algorithms for decision support tools that can be adapted or developed further by any stakeholder to meet specific requirements, ... all accompanied with freely available data for testing.
To validate and disseminate eight DSTs, complemented by a ninth socioeconomic toolbox, to help farmers and technicians implement solutions to deliver healthy soils for 75% of the acreage of the three cropping systems (cereal-based rotations, tree orchards, and grasslands) considered in TUdi in the EU and Chinese study regions, providing indicators for their impact on soil quality.
To transform a unique set of mostly long-term experiments, conducted across a broad range of cropping systems and farming types, into a reference tool for researchers and stakeholders. This will help further develop soil restoring and fertilization practices, and create a networking platform for transdisciplinary studies across the EU and China.