Climate change is significantly impacting agricultural soils in the EU, particularly in the Mediterranean region, which is warming 20% faster than the global average. Without mitigation, crop yields in southern EU could decline by up to 50% by 2050. While agriculture contributes 13% of the EU’s total GHG emissions, it also has great potential to mitigate climate change.
Carbon Farming emerges as a key solution, improving soil health and sustainability by sequestering carbon in soils. It involves climate-friendly farm management practices and creates economic opportunities through carbon credit markets.
To advance Carbon Farming, EIT Food South is leading the LILAS4SOILS project under Horizon Europe. The initiative has established five Living Labs across six countries (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, and Israel), engaging farmers, researchers, and businesses to implement Carbon Farming Practices in 85–100 demo sites.
For Carbon Farming to succeed at scale, reliable Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) quantification is essential to support EU regulatory frameworks and long-term business models.
Farmers’ commitments
Selected farmers are expected to commit to the following conditions:
a. Provide a field of a minimum size of 1 ha for the implementation of Carbon Farming Practices
b. Provide historical data on the identified field such as production history and farming practices(i.e. fertilization and amendments, irrigation practices, tillage practices, crop rotations), and previous soil analysis
c. Discuss and agree with LILAS4SOILS Living Lab Leaders on which CFPs will be applied and maintainthe agreed practices during the life of the project (3 to 4 years)
d. Work with the LILAS4SOILS Living Lab Leaders to collect soil health monitoring data and provide updates/feedback on the application of CFPs to adapt the project activities as needed (e.g. adjust timings of sampling, change combination of CFP applied, etc.)
e. Agree to share soil monitoring data in an anonymised way for learning and disseminationpurposes
f. Provide access to the site(s) to selected companies specialised in Monitoring Reporting andVerification (MRV) of SOC to test their technology and provide related data
g. Participate in person to workshops or meetings organised by the Living Labs to exchangepractices and experiences (estimated to 2 events per year) with other farmers and stakeholders
h. If selected as Lighthouse (i.e. sites for demonstration of best practices), lead field visits fortraining, peer-to-peer learning and communication related to improving soil health.
Selection criteria
a. Registered company located in a LILAS4SOILS country (France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Spain)
b. Minimum 1 ha of land must be dedicated to the application of Carbon Farming Practices
c. Farm or field selected for Carbon Farming must be located in the regions of the LILAS4SOILS
d. A degree of familiarity with regenerative agriculture and carbon farming is desirable and will be preferred
e. Farmers whose main source of income comes from farming (“professional farmers”) will be preferred
f. Farmers that have experience with peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing initiatives will be preferred
During the project preparation, 35 farmers have been selected to participate in the project, namely, to:
A. co-create and implement CFPs
B. measure the impact on SOC
C. design sustainable business models.
With this Open Call, LILAS4SOILS aims to select 50 additional farmers. Selected farmers will be compensated for their efforts in the project with 5,000 euros/year over a period of 3 years. Access to this support requires farmers to adhere to the commitments listed in Section 2.
Information on the selection process and how to apply can be found below. For further information, please contact:
- LILAS4SOILS Coordinator – Sonia Pietosi (Sonia.pietosi@eitfood.eu)
- France Living Lab Coordinator – Romane Bizieau (romane.bizieau@agrisudouest.com), Nicolas Nguyen The (nicolas.nguyen-the@agrisudouest.com)
- Greece Living Lab Coordinator – Thomas Bartzanas (t.bartzanas@aua.gr)
- Israel Living Lab Coordinator – Ori Ben - Herzel (oribh@migal.org.il), Eric Benmeir (ericbk@migal.org.il)
- Italy Living Lab Coordinator – Andrea Fiorini (andrea.fiorini@unicatt.it), Nicolaj Franceschi (nicolaj.franceschi@unicatt.it)
- Portugal Living Lab Coordinator – David Miguel Ribeiro Vieira Santos (david.santos@food4sustainability.org), Margarida Palma (margarida.palma@food4sustainability.org)
- Spain Living Lab Coordinator - María Alonso Ayuso (maria.alonso@itacyl.es), Carmen Asensio (asesanmr@itacyl.es)
To access the overall open call document please click here
