Increasing Climate Resilience Tender

Start Date 01072021End Date 30062027Total Budget 1737291 EU Contribution 955509 PROJECT DESCRIPTIONBACKGROUNDAgriculture is suffering the consequences of climate change with crop yields declining during prolonged droughts. Sandy soils are particularly vulnerable. The agricultural sector faces a challenge in making sandy soils along with their farming systems resilient to the effects of climate change.In line with the Netherlands National Climate Agreement the countrys agricultural sector aims to sequester an additional half a million tons of CO2 equivalent CO2-eq per year by 2030 through increasing soil organic matter and decreasing nitrous oxide emissions on farmland. It is estimated that annually 1 million tons of fertile clayey and loamy soil generated at Dutch public works installations is disposed of as if it were waste. This is excellent soil for increasing the resilience of sandy farmland. In addition Australian research has revealed that over a 29-year time span sandy soils enriched with clay and loam sequestered on average almost 2 tons of CO2-eqyear more than sandy soils without such enrichment.OBJECTIVESThe LIFE CO2SAND projects goal is to demonstrate the effectiveness of increasing the resilience and carbon sink capacity of sandy farmland by enriching it with clayey and loamy soil. The idea is to recover this soil from waste generated at Dutch public works installations and apply it on farmland to increase the carbon sequestration capacity of sandy soil.This approach will be demonstrated on 5 fields of 10 ha each on average spread over the province of Gelderland. Almost 30000 m3 of clayey soil released from public works installations will be used to upgrade sandy soils in these fields to improve their water retention water availability and carbon sequestration capacity. By increasing the infiltration and water retention capacity of sandy soils on agricultural land the project aims to enhance the resilience of farmers to the effects of climate change.LIFE CO2SAND will contribute to both a climate-resilient and a low-carbon resource-efficient economy. It supports implementation of the EUs 2050 climate neutrality and adaptation objectives as well as the European Green Deals climate and related policies and measures including the European Climate Pact. The project will contribute to mitigation objectives by increasing the capacity of sandy soils to function as carbon sinks. This matches the EUs policy focus on land use agriculture and forestry and its focus on conservation and enhancement of natural carbon sinks.KEYWORDS Agriculture agricultural land climate change adaptation climate change mitigation climate resilience