European Joint Programme EJP SOIL

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© Agroscope (Gabriela Brändle, Urs Zihlmann), LANAT (Andreas Chervet)

Soil is our basis for the production of healthy food. However, many of our soils are subject to severe stresses such as an oversupply of nutrients, compaction or erosion. In addition, soil stores a significant amount of carbon in the form of humus, which can be lost through inadequate management and thus contribute to climate change by releasing climate-active gases.

The European Joint Programme EJP SOIL aims to provide solutions to these challenges. In close cooperation with European partner organisations, a knowledge base for "climate-smart" agriculture is being developed. Key questions of current and future agricultural land use are to be answered in topic-specific individual projects. 

Here you will find a short presentation of the individual projects

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CarboSeq
Soil carbon content can be increased through management measures. CarboSeq investigates the potential for achieving this on a European scale.
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CLIMASOMA
Soil management and cropping systems that enhance soil quality may be key to supporting the sustainable adaptation of agriculture to climate change. CLIMASOMA has synthesised existing knowledge from scientific literature on this subject.
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EOM4SOIL
EOM4SOIL: The addition of external organic matter (EOM) such as manure increases soil fertility. Here we look at the potential contamination of EOM and how legislation can deal with this.
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INSURE
Rewetting of used peat soils improves the greenhouse gas balance. The ‘INSURE’ project is investigating this potential in five countries.
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i-SoMPE
i-SoMPE: gaining an overview of sustainable soil management practices
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Road4Schemes
Agriculture can make an important contribution to climate-change mitigation. But how can we create incentive systems that reward farmers for their efforts? What systems already exist, and what is the best way to design them?
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SoilCompaC
SoilCompaC: Soil compaction is a major threat to soil functioning. SoilCompaC quantifies compaction risks in selected European pedoclimatic zones.
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STEROPES
Up-to-date soil maps — STEROPES is advancing the use of satellite data for carbon mapping in Europe.