Details practices to improve crop productivity and soil carbon storage and the associated socio-economic barriers and opportunities. Delivered at the SRUC 2013 Conference #SRUCSustain in Edinburgh which focussed on 'Sustainable Intensification' in farming.
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Jane Mills - Soil Management Practices
1. Soil management practices to deliver
crop productivity and soil carbon
storage: understanding socio-economic
barriers and opportunities
Jane Mills, Julie Ingram, Ana Frelih-Larsen, McKenna Davis
Edinburgh 25-27th September 2013
4. Two overall aims:
• To identify farming systems and agronomic practices that
result in an optimized balance between crop productivity
and soil carbon sequestration.
• To develop and deliver a decision support tool (DST) and
guidelines to support novel approaches to different
European soils and categories of beneficiaries (farmers,
farm advisory and extension services, and policy makers).
6. WP1
Linking soil carbon &
crop productivity
WP2
Soil
management
systems in
Europe
WP4
DST &
Guidelines
WP3
Economic appraisal
of soil management
options
Improving
knowledge
LTEs & new
experiments
WP5
Stakeholder
involvement &
dissemination
Applying
knowledge
Case studies
7. 7
WP1
Linking soil carbon &
crop productivity
WP2
Soil
management
systems in
Europe
WP4
DST &
Guidelines
WP3
Economic appraisal
of soil management
options
Improving
knowledge
LTEs & new
experiments
WP5
Stakeholder
involvement &
dissemination
Applying
knowledge
Case studies
8. Consultation with the farming community
Aims: To consult experts both nationally and in the case
study regions about two main issues:
1. the current promotion, implementation and barriers
to uptake of soil management practices with
particular emphasis on soil carbon management, and
2. their experience and requirements of DSTs, with
particular emphasis on those supporting soil carbon
management.
9. Method: interviews
• First stakeholder consultation
• 60 advisers, policy makers (decision makers) & research
practitioners interviewed across study regions
• Respondents selected based on expertise and experience
in relation to the soil and crop management.
• Interview schedules developed using expert knowledge, a
literature review and partner consultation
10. Findings: Promotion and awareness of soil
carbon management practices
• Little evidence of specific government policies
• Usually advice integrated as part of other programmes, e.g
cross-compliance
• Soil carbon management relatively new issue so awareness
generally limited - growing in Denmark and Scotland but
remains low in Poland
• Variation in the extent of awareness within countries -
reflects farmer age and farming and educational background
11. Findings: Barriers to promotion and uptake
of soil carbon management practices
• Perceived scientific uncertainty about soil carbon
management.
• Difficulty demonstrating soil carbon management practices,
effects and economic benefits over a long time.
• Farmers’ perceptions, priorities, knowledge and lack of
familiarity of soil carbon management practices.
• Perceived requirement to invest in new technology
12. Findings: Incentives for soil carbon
management practices
• Financial incentives
• Evidence of benefits – impact on productivity and
profitability
• Real life case study examples
• Messages - use simple language and quantify impact
• Integrating advice into existing advice programmes, policies
and regulations
13. Conclusions
Perspectives from the farming community helping to develop
practices that can optimise productivity and soil carbon storage
- further consultation activities planned
Also helping to shape the decision support tool, guidelines and
policy recommendations being developed in the project
Credibility - scientific plausibility of the technical evidence and
arguments
Salience - relevant to needs of decision makers
Legitimacy - respectful of stakeholders’ divergent values and
beliefs and unbiased
Returns and inputs of carbon to soils pose a threat to soil functions. They also threaten the resilience of farming systems. At the same time soils provide a range of regulating and supporting functions related to climate change and the removal of greenhouse gases. The majority of these functions are closely linked to the stocks and flows of soil organic carbon.
Aims to contribute to reversing the current degradation trend of European agricultural soils by improving soil carbon management in European arable and mixed farming systems covering intensive to low-input and organic farming systems
The project – 4 years, 12 partners in 9 countries, 2 of which are socio-economic experts.6 cases study regions: Tuscany, Andalucia, Eastern Scotland, MasowieckiePoland, Közép-MagyarországHungary, SjællandDenmark
Partners consulted case study and national stakeholders included.