The European farms and (agro)forests of the future must emit as little greenhouse gases as possible. But how to realize this? Agriculture contributes to greenhouse gases emissions (and also carbon sequestration) in a variety of ways. For example, fertilisers are converted into nitrous oxide (N₂O), cattle produce methane (CH₄) and tillage techniques lead to carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

Joint 2021 Call: Circularity in mixed crops and livestock farming systems with emphasis on climate change mitigation and adaptation

The 4 ERA-NET Cofunds SusAn (Sustainable Animal Production Systems), FACCE ERA-GAS (Monitoring & Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases from Agri- and Silvi-culture), ICT-AGRI-FOOD (ICT-enabled agri-food systems) and SusCrop (Sustainable Crop Production) launched launch a joint call for transnational interdisciplinary research projects in spring 2021. This joint Call consists of 30 public funding parties from 16 European countries, 3 EU-associated countries and 4 from other countries, including both funders from non-European countries and international networks.

Joint call 2018: Novel technologies, solutions and systems to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in animal production systems

In October 2018, a joint Call of the ERA-NETs FACCE ERA-GAS, SusAn and ICT-AGRI2 was launched by 27 national public Funding Parties from 20 European countries and 4 Associated or Third Party countries. A total amount of approx. EUR 17M was provisionally reserved by the participating funding parties. In due time 24 eligible proposals were submitted. After a reviewing process by experts, 8 projects were selected for funding. Projects started between October 2019 and February 2020 with a duration of 36 months.

First Call 2016: Monitoring and mitigating of greenhouse gases from agri- and silvi-culture

In 2016, the FACCE-ERA-GAS consortium pooled resources to set up the call ‘Monitoring and mitigating of greenhouse gases from agri- and silvi-culture. The programme (2017-2020) financed ten research projects, involving 71 project partners from 39 different research institutes and SME’s across 13 European countries, New Zealand and the United States. The partners developed strategies, policy instruments and methods to monitor and mitigate greenhouse gases emissions. The aims of the research projects vary from increasing the precision of carbon stock change estimates in European forests and soils, to adapting the diets of ruminants and improving soil management. The partner institutes are jointly exploring options for pH control and fertilisation such as liming, that will not increase greenhouse gas emissions. They are also assessing the potential for upscaling best practices across Europe, using soil maps and calculation models, and together with policymakers, they are identifying suitable policy instruments to promote these practices.