climate change
Climate Change
Climate change is happening today. Management for its mitigation and adaptation is one of the major issues for environmental conservation.
Agriculture is responsible for 9 % of total EU Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions that affect seriously air quality and climate change. Conventional agricultural practices including high levels of fossil-fuel burning for soil tillage and excess use of fertilisers are the dominant agricultural driving forces enhancing climate change.
Agriculture and forestry are the only activities that can fix carbon through the photosynthesis process, incorporating the carbon into the plants vegetables tissues. Through Conservation Agriculture (CA), European Agriculture can help to slow climate change and would be ready to adapt to the impact of global warming with an ecologically, economically and socially efficient agriculture. CA helps to mitigate climate change as it is a process with dual action against the increasing concentration of GHG in the atmosphere.
- FROM AIR TO SOIL. Changes introduced by CA on the carbon dynamics in the soil directly result in an increase of the carbon trapped from the atmosphere, acting soil as a natural carbon sink.
- LESS FUEL NEEDED. CA drastically reduces the amount of mechanical manipulation of the soil, managing environmental friendly soil covers and improving soil biodiversity.
Best energy investment
Energy productivity increases as far as energy consumption per product unit produced decreases. Both technology available and responsible habits make lower energy consumption possible, improving competitiveness in farms and personal standard of living.
In most cases, CA is the best option for increasing energy productivity: more yield per unit of energy input. CA reduces fuel consumption by 45 % and energy use up to 25 % thanks to enhanced fertiliser use.
