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Agriculture has a carbon problem. On the one hand, the sector has a substantial carbon footprint, responsible for a quarter of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and 12 % of all EU emissions. On the other hand, agriculture could be significantly impacted by the climate change driven by these emissions.
While carbon is the problem, it could also be the solution. “Carbon sequestration on farms is an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone,” says Igor Milosavljevic, a senior consultant at GILab, a company dedicated to developing innovative solutions based on computer modelling and geoinformatics.
Carbon sequestration, also known as carbon capture, is the process of taking CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it long term. In agricultural settings, this typically involves using crops which absorb CO2 during photosynthesis, with the captured carbon stored organically in the soil.
“Certain practices, such as those used by ‘regenerative agriculture’, strongly leverage soil’s potential to act as a major carbon sink,” adds Milosavljevic.
According to Milosavljevic, soil carbon sequestration could remove up to 8.6 gigatons of CO2 per year. That is the equivalent of 3 % of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
What’s more, this captured carbon can also enhance soil quality by improving soil aeration and structure, increasing available nutrients, and providing a habitat for beneficial soil biota – all of which translates into healthier crops and bigger yields.
The EU-funded AgriCapture project is leveraging technology to help realise the benefits of regenerative agriculture. The project uses the Earth Observation satellite, including the free and open data coming from Europe’s Copernicus Earth Observation system, to deliver innovative, flexible and scalable solutions for soil carbon capture initiatives.
“AgriCapture developed systematic, robust and flexible tools for quantifying and promoting soil carbon capture, allowing agriculture stakeholders and other landowners to become ‘carbon farmers’,” explains Milosavljevic, who served as the project coordinator.
Soil sampling made simple
The AgriCapture suite of solutions uses a combination of Earth Observation data and machine learning to create an intuitive soil map for a targeted farm or area. Uncertainty mapping is then used to calculate points for where a sample would most likely improve the map, thus indicating where one should conduct the soil sampling.
“Soil sampling is traditionally a time-intensive process involving manually collecting the sample and physically analysing it in a laboratory,” remarks Milosavljevic. “By minimising the need to take soil samples, we have reduced the associated costs of carbon monitoring.”
The project also developed algorithms for accurately verifying whether a farmer has implemented certain regenerative measures. This information could enable a cost-effective regenerative carbon credit or subsidy programme or serve as the basis of a carbon certification scheme.
Other key outcomes of the project include a mobile app to help farmers collect soil samples and an assessment tool for calculating the costs/benefits of transitioning to regenerative agriculture.
Forecasting soil organic carbon
AgriCapture represents a step change in our ability to measure, forecast and estimate soil organic carbon – an essential first step to enabling large-scale carbon capture.
It should come as no surprise that the project’s solutions are already being used across Europe. With several solutions commercialised and available on the Polish market, the project is helping farmers take advantage of the subsidies available under the new common agricultural policy to implement regenerative agriculture.
Food companies such as Farrington Oils in the United Kingdom are using the project’s various solutions to quantify carbon changes in their own soils and offset emissions via a certification scheme.
Furthermore, several soil carbon credit projects in Portugal and Serbia are experimenting with the AgriCapture platform, while in the United Kingdom, the platform was at the heart of the Great British Sustainable Agriculture Programme – one of Europe’s first soil carbon capture initiatives.
“Reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint is key to mitigating climate change, while increasing agriculture’s productivity is essential to achieving food security,” concludes Milosavljevic. “By allowing farmers to implement regenerative farming and soil carbon capture, the AgriCapture project helps tick both boxes.”