Summary

Actions and means involved

 Preliminary phase

  • Creation of four Baseline Reports, one per EU Climate Risk Region. They consist of a bibliographical compilation of: climate trends, regional climate change scenarios, a compilation of agronomic consequences of the expected climatic impacts for the farming systems assessed (arable land, permanent crops, livestock), geographical scale and size of the selected farming systems.
  • Creation of preliminary catalogues, with a compilation of sustainable adaptation measures for each of the farming systems under study (arable land, permanent crops and livestock).
  • Selection of 120 pilot farms, on which an assessment of the vulnerability to climate change will be carried out and action plans with adaptation measures will be developed.
  • Development of a Common Decision Tool for assessing the vulnerability to climate change of the pilot farms in the different agro-climatic zones of each country. This Common Decision Tool includes regional climatic data, agronomic data and agro-climatic indicators. The tool will be able to: 1. analyze the vulnerability to climate change at farm level. 2, suggest adaptation measures to climate change for the four EU Climatic Risk Regions. 3, is accessible for all types of users.
  • Creation of a Steering Committee board with experts in adaptation to climate change and the farming sector.

 Development and testing phase on 120 pilot farms

  • Assessment of the vulnerability to climate change on pilot farms and proposal of sustainable adaptation measures. The last two agronomic seasons are analyzed with each pilot farm and the effects of climate change are illustrated with the help of the agro-climatic indicators, specific for each crop.
  • Creation of action plans. Together with the pilot farmer, a set of sustainable adaptation measures to climate change are selected.
  • Annual monitoring and evaluation of the practicability for the selected adaptation measures on the pilot farms.
  • Results are summarized according to their transferability in order to create General Proposals for the three key farming systems (arable land, permanent crops and livestock).

 

 Dissemination and communication phase of project results – transferability

The project results are presented and discussed with the main target groups and stakeholders, especially policy-makers at an international, EU, national and regional level. Other key stakeholders include research centers, universities, companies in the agri-food industry, farming associations, standards and insurance companies. The aim is to incorporate these sustainable adaptation measures into policies, labels and standards, insurance guidelines, etc. 

The actions include: expert meetings, workshops, webinars and the creation of a “Farming Adaptation Training Pack” for current and future farmers.