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BIONÆR-Bionæringsprogram

Balancing production and environment

Alternative title: Arealbruk for en bærekraftig balanse mellom matproduksjon og miljø

Awarded: NOK 5.4 mill.

The PROENV project (balancing PROduction and ENVironment) will explore the impact of land spare and land share approaches to balance the impact of food-production while preserving ecosystem services. At the end of the project, the results will be presented in public webinar. In addition to scientific articles in peer reviewed journals, results will be presented in short videos and popular articles. PROENV has partners from Denmark (DK)(Lead), Spain (ESP), Italy (IT), and Norway (NO). PROENV is gathering stakeholders (farmer’s organizations and environmental regulators) for digital dialogue meetings to uncover practical and legal barriers to optimized resource utilization in the four countries. This work is facilitated by the Norwegian partner (NORSØK). Common barriers detected so far are financial deficiency and shortage of time. PROENV adapts existing software developed in Italy for improved data-modelling of manure nitrogen utilization at field, farm and regional scales and reduce nitrogen losses from manure. By using this distribution model, a better understanding of how manure can be distributed between farms can be achieved and subsequently optimized. This has a positive effect on the farms with a surplus of manure which can redistribute manure to farms with a deficit of manure. It is tested in a case study in Denmark and one in the Po region in Italy and will soon be tested in the Catalonia region in Spain. It is still in the development phase and not implemented by any agricultural authority. The Norwegian partners will mainly work on Farm-scale measures, exploring the role of intensification on GHG emissions, energy consumption, nutrient balance, biodiversity and economy. Intensification is defined as increased purchase of nutrients and energy on a farm-level. We use modelling at the farm scale and have a PhD student who contributes with system analysis in dairy farming to reveal the impact of farm characteristics, purchased inputs, and conventional or organic production mode on gross margin, GHG emissions, nitrogen cost, energy use, and agricultural land use occupation, based on data from 200 Norwegian dairy farms. This work has resulted in three papers that are soon ready for submission. The main conclusions are: Increased import of nitrogen and energy increases GHG emissions; organic farms were associated with lower GHG emissions and nitrogen-use and higher gross margins per produced unit but occupied more land. Analysing data by machine learning had limited advantages compared to multiple linear regression. A fourth paper will be based on dairy farm data from regions in ESP, IT, DK, and NO with farm structures and farming practise that vary significantly from each other. We will identify if the same management factors have largest impact on the environmental indicators in the four regions, and will also include rough indicators for biodiversity. There is an ongoing cooperation between Spain (IRTA) and Norway (NIBIO) on feeding strategies to reduce CH4 emissions and maintain the production-level in beef production. The focus will be on the impact of sunflower oil and different substrates from corn-production. Because of very dry weather in Spain there will be no focus on grazing as initial planned. The contribution from NIBIO is LCA analysis where impact on emissions from production of the additives and from manure also are included. To do this the FARMnor model developed in an earlier project (NRC no. 199487) will be used and further developed. The field trials in PROENV are related to manure management: Topic 1: “Strategies related to manure management to reduce GHG emissions” (ESP and IT) has three different manure application levels. Topic 2: “Strategies related to crop rotation management to reduce annual GHG emissions” (IT, ESP, and DK) is implementing two types of N-fertilizer (organic vs. artificial) in connection with different cover crops, either as mixtures or pure stands. The results from the field trials have not been summarized yet.

The PROENV project (balancing PROduction and ENVironment) will explore the impact of the land spare and land share approaches to balance production and ecosystem services. In a land spare approach, the landscape is partitioned into areas with highly productive agriculture and areas with extensive or no agriculture that provide other ecosystem services. In the land share approach the farming intensity is limited in the whole area. This results in a less partitioned landscape, where the shared land provides all ecosystem services including agriculture. This will provide a framework to decide if the balance between production and other ecosystem services is best achieved using a land spare, land share or a mixed approach for a particular region. We will investigate measures to reduce nitrogen losses from manure and contribute to the adaptation of existing software to enable modelling of manure N utilization at field, farm and regional scales. The tool was developed for use in a specific geographic region. In PROENV, its technical and modelling capacities will be extended for use in other regions of Europe. PROENV will gather stakeholders (farmer’s organisations and environmental regulators) internationally and locally for dialogue meetings to uncover practical and legal barriers to optimized resource utilization. The results will be presented in public webinars. In addition to scientific articles in peer reviewed journals, results will be presented in short, targeted videos and popular articles at PROENV’s webpage and on partners' social media channels. The Norwegian partners will mainly work on Farm-scale measures. The role of intensification on GHG emissions, energy consumption, nutrient balance, biodiversity and economy will be explored. Intensification is defined as increased purchase of nutrients and energy on a farm-level. A PhD study in systems analysis (LCA and other modelling tools) will be central. The Norwegian partner will lead the dissemination.

Publications from Cristin

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Funding scheme:

BIONÆR-Bionæringsprogram