Farms4Climate
Smart governance and operational tools for agroecological carbon farming.
Farms4Climate is an innovation action co-funded by the European Union (programme H2020) through PRIMA's (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) section 1 theme on farming systems, which officially started on April the 1st, 2022. Led by Spanish AIR Institute of artificial intelligence, the consortium is composed of 12 members from Italy, Greece, Egypt, Tunisia and Spain, including universities, NGOs, farming societies and SMEs. SAE Innova played a central role in the ideation of the project and in the selection of the partners to be involved, and currently leads the communication and dissemination work package.
The project was ideated to test existing carbon farming options as an opportunity to generate extra incomes for Mediterranean smallholders and therefore contribute to sustainably transform agrosystems. The basic workflow of Farms4Climate is to repeat in six regions a living lab process, where at least a lighthouse farm, an agronomic research center and a digital developer would work together in the creation of a carbon farming scheme relevant to the local conditions. For every living lab, an agroecological practice that diverges from the regional "business-as-usual" is selected; 2) the research center performs field trials to confirm the reduced carbon footprint of such a practice; 3) the digital partner develops a tool that can help local farmers to measure, report and verify their climate footprint, therefore paving the way to generate carbon credits and access voluntary carbon markets. By articulating these three phases and engaging with a large multi-actor community representing regional economic and environmental interests, the ultimate ambition of the consortium is to kickstart the creation of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) that can manage and sustain carbon farming opportunities in the long term.
For more information visit: Farms4Climate Project website