The conference, held on the 23rd of June at the headquarters of the Cruzcampo Foundation, included the participation of more than 200 farmers and in addition to presenting the project, also served to analyse the progress of grain and sunflower campaigns in Andalusia, amongst other subjects.
The event was inaugurated by the General Director of Agricultural and Cattle Breeding Production of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rafael Olvera, and by the chairman of ASAJA-Sevilla, Ricardo Serra, who thanked the Caja Rural del Sur Foundation, Heineken, Bayer Cropscience, Eurosemillas, Syngenta, Agrovegetal and Asegasa for their collaboration.
After the inauguration, the Life+ Climagri project "Best Agricultural Practices for Climate Change: Integrating strategies of mitigation and adaptation" project was presented. As the Executive Director of the Spanish Association for Conservation Agriculture Living Soils, Emilio González, explained, the agriculture industry is one that could be affected by climate change, which could have a negative effect on crop yields. This is why we need to adapt in time and take measures to mitigate the effects of climate change and the financial, social and environmental consequences thereof, bearing in mind the important role the agriculture industry plays as a producer of food products and environmental goods and services.
Emilio González also summed up the conclusions after four years of field studies of the Life+ Agricarbon project, which, over the course of four years, has shown the effectiveness of sustainable systems such as conservation agriculture with great potential for the reduction of the atmospheric concentration of CO2. This agricultural model is based on the total or partial reduction of soil tillage, keeping the soil protected with a permanent layer of vegetation cover combined with ancient techniques such as crop rotation and other more innovative techniques such as precision agriculture, which makes more efficient use of supplies thanks to the use of new technologies based on global positioning systems and the site-specific allocation of supplies.
Following the presentation of the project, other subjects of interest in relation thereto, which focused on the evolution of grain production in the recently ended campaign, were covered, in addition to the technical solutions and opportunities the industry can offer to face the uncertainties existing in agriculture ecosystems as a result of climate change.
