Strategies for Circular Agriculture to reduce GHG emissions within and between farming systems across an agro-ecological gradient

The overall objective of CircAgric-GHG is to enhance circularity within and between farm typologies across an agro-ecological gradient from the arctic climate in Norway, via the oceanic climate of UK and Ireland, continental climate of Germany, Mediterranean climate of Spain and Italy to the tropics in Kenya and the dry and temperate climate of South Africa – in order to drive GHG mitigation and wider food system sustainability at multiple scales (farm, local, regional, national and international). In 2023, the project has carried out workshops with high-end stakeholders and with farmers in both Wales and Norway. Similar workshops are planned to be held in Germany, Italy, and South Africa. A video was produced for use at the workshop. The video explains circular agriculture. The video has been translated into Norwegian and Italian and can be viewed on the website www.circagric.org. Technology is used in the project to provide input to possible circular practices at landscape level. In Norway, drones have been used to measure greenhouse gases over a farm and in Italy, satellite measurements have contributed to assessing landscape changes. In Italy, cows have been allocated wastes from bakeries as feed and sustainability and circularity have been assessed. Many farmers across all countries have been interviewed and the results are processed by the Spanish partner to model circular practices and which practices can be implemented to increase circularity.

European farms trend towards specialisation and high yields but have become increasingly dependent on external inputs to compensate for declining recycling of nutrients. Farms in sub-Saharan Africa less specialized, have low inputs and yields and higher vulnerability to climate change. In Europe, re-coupling of livestock and crop systems could play an important role in more efficient (re)cycling of resources across livestock and crops, and food value chains. In Africa, integrating sustainability and resilience objectives with enhanced food security could avoid some of the trade-offs currently experienced in Europe (e.g., high GHG emissions and N pollution). CircAgric-GHG represents 17 world-leading researchers from 8 countries with expertise in livestock, cropping systems, farm and landscape modelling, LCA and ecosystem services. The consortium will draw upon state-of-the-art knowledge, research methods and models to assess how circular practices can deliver sustainable food systems. Using farm typologies as a baseline, the extent of existing circular practice implementation will be evaluated. Promising practices to enhance circularity will be proposed across typologies and agro-ecological zones. High-resolution modelling of resource cycling and GHG emissions at farm and landscape level will be undertaken using process- and farm models, with remote sensing of particularly uncertain land use emission fluxes using novel satellite and drone technology. LCA will be applied to integrate modelling outputs into environmental footprints of food production, developing a novel framework for future projects. Farm-scale modelling will also inform a marginal abatement cost curve and a decision support tool, enabling robust comparison of GHG abatement efficacy of specific circular practices. Stakeholder dialogue via workshops and focus groups will identify systemic lock-ins and levers pertinent to wide scale deployment of circular practices, culminating in a Transition Roadmap