H1 – Reduction of tillage intensity
Description
Reducing tillage saves fuel and strengthens humus buildup and thus CO2 storage in the fields
Impact
- CO2 ✔
- N2O
- CH4
- Energy ✔
- Resources ✔
What it does
If the soil is tilled less about 5-15l of fuel per hectare can be saved and if no longer turned, the humus content can be increased. If a 10% increase can be achieved in 5 years around 13t of CO2 can be stored per hectare
How to get it done
- What is to be done:especially with no-till tillage (e.g. no-till), no longer turn the soil but conserve it
- Impact:medium
- Potential to be realised and possible conflict of interest:changing tillage must be part of the entire cropping system and requires different management and machines to cope with weeds, diseases and crop left-overs in order to keep or increase sustainable yield levels
- Roadmap and time horizon:1-5 years
- Cost:reduced cost through less tillage. There is going to be a yield dip for a few years to fully establish the new system and mangement
- Investment:new tillage and seeding equipment. If with normal replacement cycle no additional investment, if not can be significant and several €10’000 up to €100’000 for an average European farm
- Financing:bank loan, leasing, agricultural investment funds, national schemes
How to measure, assess impact and whom to talk to
- Impact:medium impact through fuel savings, savings in gray energy from machines and Carbon storage in soil
- What to measure:soil carbon content and fuel / machinery use
- How to measure:fuel measures from machines, soil carbon with sampling and satellite input, gray energy from machines with C-balance tools
- Solution providers:AgriCircle (www.agricircle.com), Treffler (www.treffler.net) and other machinery producers, local extension service
- Farmer acceptance:medium (16% of farmers in AgroCO2ncept have implement measures by 2020). First steps are rather easy, but the less tillage, the more demanding and the bigger the change
- References:AgroCO2ncept (www.agroco2ncept.ch)
H2 – Reduction of passages and soil load
Description
Vehicles should not exceed a maximum contact area pressure and a minimum number of trips should be achieved through optimal equipment, crop rotation, plot structure, etc.
Impact
- CO2
- N2O ✔
- CH4
- Energy ✔
- Resources ✔
What it does
The reduced passes and wheel loads can save energy and prevent soil compaction or denitrification due to lack of oxygen
How to get it done
- What is to be done:matching of attachment system (number of trips) and machine park (wheel loads) by means of Terranimo/TIM and carbon balancing tools
- Impact:medium
- Potential to be realised and possible conflict of interest:Combination of different passages might lead to side effects like soil can not rest / dry before drilling and bigger, heavier machines
- Roadmap and time horizon:1-5 years
- Cost:reduced cost through less passages
- Investment:might need new equipment. To be evaluated case by case
- Financing: own resources, Bank loan, national schemes
How to measure, assess impact and whom to talk to
- Impact: medium impact through fuel and energy savings and the prevention of soil compaction or denitrification due to lack of oxygen
- What to measure:soil carbon content and fuel / energy use
- How to measure:fuel measures from machines, soil carbon with sampling and satellite input
- Solution providers:AgriCircle (www.agricircle.com), Terranimo (www.terranimo.ch – Also directly included in AgriCircle), flotation tyre producers and tyre pressure systems such as from PTG (www.ptg.info)
- Farmer acceptance:medium (11% of farmers in AgroCO2ncept have implement measures by 2020). First savings are easy. Further optimizations become harder
- References:AgroCO2ncept (www.agroco2ncept.ch)
H3 – Optimization of spatial utilization structures and use of GPS-technology
Description
Improvement of cross-farm spatial structures, e.g. through melioration, leasehold land consolidation and land use exchange, as well as improvement of on-farm management structures as well as the use of GPS technology for parallel driving
Impact
- CO2
- N2O
- CH4
- Energy ✔
- Resources
What it does
On optimally shaped and used surfaces, machining is simplified, the distances traveled are reduced, and thus the effort and energy consumption are minimized. Also overlapping / headland in cultivation is minimized and leading to savings in fertilizer, seeds and crop protection
How to get it done
- What is to be done:potential analysis based on the plot and management plans and evaluation of best fitting GPS solution
- Impact:high
- Potential to be realised and possible conflict of interest:exchange of land can also lead to friction amongst the farming community and lead to less collaboration leading to higher emissions
- Roadmap and time horizon:5-10 years
- Cost:cost of melioration and h of discussions amongst farmers to agree on changes. Annual licences of GPS-RTK signal of €0-1’500/year
- Investment:cost of melioration, invest in GPS devices of around €15’000-25’000 per tractor
- Financing: own resources, National schemes
How to measure, assess impact and whom to talk to
- Impact: high impact through reduced fuel and energy consumption and less overlapping / less headland in cultivation minimizing inputs
- What to measure:fuel and energy use, amount of overlap in cultivation
- How to measure:fuel and energy measures from machines, overlap with drones or measuring on the ground
- Solution providers:griCircle (www.agricircle.com), FMIS and machinery producers, open source GPS solutions such as CEREA (https://cerea-forum.de/forum) or AgOpenGPS (http://agopengps.gh-ortner.com/doku.php), drone producers such as DJI (www.dji.com), Yuneec (www.yuneec.com), Sensefly (www.sensefly.com)
- Farmer acceptance:medium (32% of farmers in AgroCO2ncept have implement measures by 2020). Needs inter-company approaches
- References:AgroCO2ncept (www.agroco2ncept.ch)
