Global agriculture relies on fossil resources for covering most of its energy needs and supporting agricultural productivity. The impact on productivity and efficiency, but also on labour intensity and workers’ fatigue after agricultural mechanization using fossil energy was positive, but contributed with its share to Global Warming Potential through greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions.
To reduce this impact, industry and research entities have been developing novel technologies and strategies related to more sustainable energy production, efficient use and GHG emissions reduction that for the purposes of AgroFossilFree are named Fossil-Energy-Free Technologies and Strategies (FEFTS), including:
• Renewable Energy Sources
• Energy Efficiency Technologies
• Soil Carbon Sequestration techniques
Promoting such solutions to stakeholders in the value chains of arable farming, orchards, vineyards, greenhouses and livestock facilities can assist on farm cost reduction, environmental resilience and competitiveness for EU farmers.
Unfortunately, in the agricultural sector there is still an important gap between FEFTS development and their actual adoption by the farmers, especially for small/medium producers. This was derived from the fact that agriculture has not been considered as a main energy consumer and GHG producer, but also as the installation cost of such technologies has been high for low income farmers.
Nowadays, the wide application of FEFTS in other sectors has allowed their optimization (more efficient and higher quality) coupled with reduced prices.
Hence, FEFTS large adoption in European agriculture could assist thoroughly on converting agricultural systems into more sustainable with minimum energy, environmental and socioeconomic impact. Only when agricultural stakeholders gain knowledge of existing and future FEFTS will agriculture be able to fully align with the fossil energy use reduction policies, the related legal and regulatory frameworks and sustainable food production practices.
The main objective of AgroFossilFree was to create a framework under which all core stakeholders would cooperate to evaluate and promote the currently available FEFTS in EU agriculture to decrease in the short term and eliminate in the long run the use of fossil energy from cradle to farm gate, while maintaining yield and quality of the end product. Such framework can contribute in bridging the gap between the available novel high-end FEFTS and the everyday European agricultural practices by capturing grassroots-level needs and ideas, promoting effective exchange of information and investigating the possible financing opportunities for de-fossilizing activities in farming. Ultimately, it can facilitate farmers to find solutions for their specific needs contributing towards fossil-free farming.
