ClieNFarms – Transition to climate-neutral and resilient farms

Demonstrate, co-develop, improve technical, organisational and financial solutions at the farm level that will contribute to climate neutral and resilient farms

Context and objectives

Funded by the European Commission under the European Green Deal, ClieNFarms was a project running from 2022 to 2025. Its aim was to co-develop and scale up local systemic solutions (organizational, financial, and technical) to foster climate-neutral and resilient farms across Europe, by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increasing carbon storage.

A consortium of 33 partners from 14 countries worked on improving existing solutions through a multi-actor approach involving farmers, researchers, value chain actors, and civil society, with the objective of achieving economically viable agricultural systems.

The CRA-W farmers’ network

The core of the project was based on 19 farmer networks called I3S (Innovative Systemic Solution Spaces), covering a wide range of production systems. Their objective was to test climate-oriented practices in situ, adapted to local contexts, in order to reduce GHG emissions and/or increase carbon sequestration.

In Wallonia, CRA-W supported a group of 9 farmers located in the Hesbaye and Condroz regions, mainly in arable farming (including 3 mixed crop-livestock systems), all engaged in reducing soil tillage and improving the climate performance of their farms.

Cover crops were identified as a priority practice, due to their ability to enhance carbon storage, provide nitrogen for subsequent crops, and improve soil structure and protection. Despite their widespread adoption, their performance remained variable, which led to the implementation of participatory trials based on farmer exchanges. A summary of the results (2022–2023) is available in downloadable factsheets.

At the individual farm level, an action plan was co-developed with each farmer to improve their carbon footprint, integrating complementary practices (hedgerows, soil management, organic inputs, localized fertilization, etc.). GHG assessments were conducted at the beginning and at the end of the project using the DECIDE tool.

Finally, a catalogue of climate solutions was developed, highlighting the most widely implemented practices and their impacts. This work also emphasized the strong variability of effects depending on the context and the need to strengthen available data for certain practices.