Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils

Fostering soil management PRACtices and uptake and developing decision support TOols through LIVing labs in EU - PRAC2LIV

EJP Soil Topic: Soil specific guidelines and decision support tools with focus on soil organic matter, water retention and nutrient efficiency

The project PRAC2LIV will make and evaluate a stock-take of Decision Support Tools (DSTs) that focus on soil organic matter, water retention, and nutrient use efficiency as currently used by EJP Member States. Building on previous stocktakes, EU-projects and national reports, the overview will include DSTs from simple tools to the next generation level support systems. Both the scientific base of DSTs as well as their implementation and adoption at farm level will be assessed, with special attention for soil management practices, regional distance-to-target options, and data sharing for web-portal applications.

Guidelines for development of DSTs and designs for (mock-up) web-portal and/or dashboards will be discussed in workshop exchanges with stakeholder groups, e.g., living labs and/or EU-lighthouse projects. Based on the results from the stocktake and these discussions, a tiered approach will be developed for future development of DSTs in agro-systems across EJP Member States. [https://ejpsoil.eu/soil-research/eom4soil/into-dialogue/prac2liv]

Keywords: Decision Support Tool (DST), soil management, carbon, water, nutrient use efficiency, distance-to-target

Duration of the project: 24 months (11/2022 - 10/2024)

Project Coordinator: Marjoleine Hanegraaf - Wageningen Research, The Netherlands