Sustainable management and regenerative agriculture for vines
Conventional agricultural management techniques have led to the loss of organic matter in soil, limiting its ability to support plant growth and act as a carbon sink. The VitiCaSe project team are investigating how sustainable management techniques could lead to the removal of more CO2 from the atmosphere, as Gabriele Mongardi and Simona Palermo explain.
The use of tillage as a means of preparing and managing soil for crop cultivation leads to the loss of organic matter, reducing the capacity of soil to retain water and stock nutrients to support plant growth. When soil is tilled, organic matter is more exposed to atmospheric oxygen, then it undergoes a transformation. “It mineralises, it goes back to being carbon dioxide (CO 2), and it is released into the atmosphere. This process is linked to the tillage of soil,” explains Gabriele Mongardi, an Education and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) specialist at Image Line, an Italian SME which provides digital solutions for the agriculture sector. Changing weather patterns are also affecting the quality of soil, says Mongardi. “Heavy rainfall events concentrated over short periods of time can cause significant soil erosion, particularly on agricultural terraces, leading to an overall loss of water,” he outlines.
VitiCaSe project
As technical coordinator of the VitiCaSe project, an EU-backed initiative bringing together eight partners from across Europe, Mongardi is now working to address these issues through the implementation of more sustainable management techniques in vineyards in Italy and France. While soils in many cultivated areas have only a low amount of organic matter, plants can sequester CO 2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and then transform it into biomass, a topic that Mongardi and his colleagues in the project are now exploring. “We are investigating how to cultivate plants – in this case vines – in a way that can encourage the sequestration of CO 2 from the atmosphere. This biomass can then be stored in the soils,” he says. “We are looking to leave the soil relatively undisturbed, with only minimal tillage or even none at all, while we are also exploring the use of cover crops and other sustainable management practices.”
The idea is that these practices could help slow down the loss of organic matter in soil, shifting the balance to encourage the sequestration of carbon and enhancing the long-term prospects of the wine sector. The project team started by assessing the
soil conditions at four farms in Italy; three in Tuscany and one in the Veneto region.
“We have taken soil samples at these farms, assessing the level of organic matter, the carbon content, and we have estimated a starting point,” says Mongardi. This provides a kind of baseline, then researchers can look to assess the impact of different sustainable management techniques on levels of organic matter, work which will continue beyond the end of the project’s four year funding term. “We want to assess the impact of these techniques over the long-term. The accumulation of organic matter occurs over quite extended periods, so we plan to continue monitoring this beyond the conclusion of VitiCaSe,” continues Mongardi.
Researchers are also working on mathematical models designed to give a more rapid picture of how different management techniques affect organic content levels, which will be validated by comparing their output with data from the fields. A further digital tool bringing together data on soil, local climate and the impact of different management techniques is under development, which Mongardi says will help farmers plan for the future. “We want to help farmers understand how – and how much
– they can improve the soil if they adopt and implement sustainable management techniques,” he explains. This is currently quite difficult to assess, and sampling soil in fields is expensive, issues that the project team are addressing. “We are trying to develop different ways to measure levels of organic carbon content in soil, using models and data from various sources. In particular, we are working to collect data on vineyard cultivation, such as fertilisation, green manure and tillage, automatically from farm management information systems (FMIS). We hope that this will lead to a reduction in the overall cost of measuring organic carbon content,” says Mongardi.
Sustainable management
This is part of the goal of demonstrating that sustainable management practices not only improve soil conditions, but are also economically viable, which is a key consideration for farms. Increased levels of organic matter can boost the productivity of soil, while certification that carbon has been sequestered means farms can access carbon credits, opening up new business possibilities. “These carbon credits can then cover the higher costs of managing vineyards
in a sustainable way. We are trying to spread these practices, which will result in higher quantities of carbon sequestration and carbon removal,” outlines Mongardi. The initial plan is to implement the system in four farms in Italy, but Mongardi says that it could be applied more widely in future. “We expect to involve other farms, mainly in France. We plan to collect data in places with varying climatic conditions, to validate the output of the tool, and see if this approach can work in different conditions,” he says.
The project partners also include CREA, the main Italian research body dedicated to agrifood supply chains, supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests (Masaf), who are heavily involved in mapping soil organic matter and developing the model to calculate carbon stocks. At the heart of the project are the farms themselves and the people who work there, who ultimately are the ones who will apply these sustainable practices. “We have been directly involving farmers in decisions around what to do in the fields. Because it’s
“We are investigating how to cultivate vines in a way that can encourage the sequestration of CO2 from the atmosphere. This biomass can then be stored in the soils. Digital tools will be developed to support regenerative viticulture.”
The project is still at a relatively early stage however, and the current priority is to implement the different management practices at the pilot farms. These farms were all committed to sustainable agriculture even before participating in VitiCaSe, and Mongardi says many in the wine sector are keen to explore the potential of more sustainable practices. “There is a lot of interest in more sustainable ways of producing and growing vines among many wine-growers,” he stresses. The project’s work represents an important contribution in this respect, with close cooperation between the partners key to bringing together the different strands of research and delivering environmental benefits.”Our project has a multi-actor approach, we are following a collaborative, cooperative approach among the partners. At Image Line, we are working on the technical and digital component,” says Simona Palermo, the overall coordinator of the project.
their fields, their vines, their business. We can’t follow a top-down approach, rather it has to be collaborative,” stresses Mongardi. This is crucial to building positive relationships with farmers and promoting the wider adoption of more sustainable management practices.
“We found that farms were very much ready to look at more sustainable practices when we were developing the project proposal,” continues Mongardi. Pilot Farms involved in the project are Castello di Albola, Ruffino and San Felice Wine Estates. Finally, Carbon Credits Consulting is in charge of the processes aimed at certifying carbon credits, while the farmers’ association UPA Siena and the tech company EZ Lab France are collaborating in the promotion and adoption of the project results in Italy and France respectively.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
LIFE VitiCaSe
Viticulture for Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration
Project Objectives
LIFE VitiCaSe aims to enhance carbon sequestration in vineyard soils, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and support climate change mitigation. The project adopts an integrated approach that considers all the phases of the process, from the study of the various sustainable soil management practices, to the measurement of impacts with the support of digital tools, up to the generation and sale of carbon credits certified. The project aims also to simplify the process of certifying the quantities of sequestered carbon and thus create a new business model linked to Carbon Farming.
Project Funding
The LIFE VitiCaSe Project has received funding from the European Union’s Life Program. Project 101113620.
Project Partners
https://www.life-viticase.eu/en/progetto
Contact Details
Simona Palermo, Project Coordinator Gabriele Mongardi, Technical Project Manager Image Line T: +39 0546 680688 E: info@life-viticase.eu W: https://www.life-viticase.eu/en
Simona Palermo, Project Coordinator, holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences and brings over 20 years of experience in research, innovation, and agrifood partnerships, overseeing the project’s overall direction.
Gabriele Mongardi Technical Coordinator, is an agronomist with expertise in agricultural innovation and digitalisation. He manages the integration of technical components from project partners, ensuring the effective execution of activities. He is joined by Matteo Munaro a smart farming specialist, who ensures the alignment between field activities and the development of the carbon farming digital tool.
Cristiano Spadoni a journalist with extensive experience in agricultural communication and marketing, member of “Accademia dei Georgofili”, leads the project’s communication and dissemination efforts. He promotes the project’s progress and ensures visibility through AgroNotizie, Image Line’s online agricultural magazine, engaging the broader agrifood community.
