Soil conservation farming and climate change #2

In my second blog on this website, back in 2020, I discussed the potential for soil conservation farming to play a role in mitigating climate change by increasing carbon sequestration in the soil. Since then, the “4 per 1000” initiative, launched by France at the COP21, has put forward a road-map showing how improving carbon sequestration in the soil by 4% per year could offset practically all new carbon emissions. In today’s blog, I want to discuss how this suite of methods can also help farmers adapt to what is increasingly becoming the reality of climate change, and reduced rainfall in particular.

2022 has seen record temperatures and unprecedented drought all across Europe. Farms in large swathes of the Charente-Maritime department, in the west of France, and as far east as Burgundy, have seen their yields fall by 30-40%, and as I write these words, 78 of France’s 95 mainland departments are listed as being in “crisis” status, meaning that restrictions such as hosepipe bans have been implemented. Numerous cases of vandalism of water retention basins, jacuzzis even, across France this summer illustrate how this issue has become a point of contention.

In my previous blog on this issue, I mentioned that soil conservation agriculture was developed in Brazil in part to counter soil runoff and the demineralisation of the soil caused by heavy rain. In practice, this works by planting companion crops that cover the precious, nutrient-rich topsoil, preventing it from being washed away by the rain. Paradoxically, this technique can also improve resilience against the opposite phenomenon of drought; the additional organic matter provided by cover crops improves soil structure enabling rain to seep into the soil more easily, minimising run-off, as well as retaining that moisture. Likewise, the reduced need for insecticides enabled by the adoption of cover crops has the same effect by boosting biodiversity and enabling earthworms to do their vital work of creating underground tunnels that also retain rainwater.

The second major feature of soil conservation agriculture – reduced tillage – ensures that the benefits of this improved soil structure are maximised; by minimizing tillage, farmers don’t destroy this carefully cultivated soil structure, and the reduced fertiliser and pesticide application enabled by the use of cover crops means that the soil is not compacted by the repeated passage of tractors in the fields. As this shows, soil conservation agriculture is a series of inter-related methods that create a virtuous cycle, improving soil health and structure, its water storage capacity and, ultimately, its resistance to drought.

This year’s drought and the ensuing impact on yields brings the issue of adapting to climate change into stark relief, but the agro-ecological transition is not just an issue of food sovereignty and consumer purchasing power; France exports approximately half of the grain it produces (34 million tonnes for the 2019/2020 season), making it the world’s 6th-largest grain exporter with 8.2% of total global exports (just behind Ukraine).

A significant proportion of France’s soft wheat exports goes to Africa, in particular Algeria and Morocco, as well as, to a lesser extent, West Africa, Egypt and the Middle East. With Ukrainian grain exports still hampered by the conflict, and uncertainty about their ability to cultivate, harvest or store future harvests, and having seen how spikes in commodities prices in 2008 and 2010 led to civil unrest in the Middle East, France’s continued ability to export grain is truly a major geopolitical concern.

As such, the burden of this transition shouldn't be on civil society; there must be a commensurate public policy response with greater financial incentives for farmers who take risks to implement methods that ensure they are able to continue to feed the population at home and abroad in this “new normal.”