Introduction

Global agriculture relies on fossil resources for covering most of its energy needs and is a main energy consumer and greenhouse gases {GHG) producer. Novel technologies and strategies related to more sustainable energy production, efficient use and GHG emissions' reduction are already applied in most economic sectors with very positive results. Agriculture was till recently not identified as a main application domain and therefore such technologies are not widely adopted by farmers.

But only when agricultural stakeholders gain knowledge and training on technological advancements in energy sector will agriculture be able to fully align with the related policies, frame­works {EU Green Deal) and sustainable food production practices.

Agrofossilfree

Fossil-Energy-Free Technologies and Strategies

FEFTS (Fossil-Energy-Free Technologies and Strategies) refer to the tools that are required to address cleaner and more efficient energy production and use in agriculture.

  • Clean Energy production (photovoltaics, solar thermal, wind-turbines, heat pumps, solid biomass conversion, biogas/biomethane production).
  • Energy Efficiency improvements (building management systems (BMS), efficient maintenance of vehicles, precision agriculture techniques, precision livestock farming, conservation agriculture).
  • Soil Carbon Sequestration (Crop rotation, Soil coverage, No/minimum tillage, nutrient management, crop diversification).

Objectives

The overall objective of the project is to create a framework under which all core stakeholders will cooperate to evaluate and promote the currently available fossil-energy-free technologies and strategies (FEFTS) in EU agriculture to decrease in the short term and eliminate in the long run the use of fossil energy in open-field crop production and controlled environment agricultural constructions through:

  1. Assessment and evaluation of the current energy use status in EU agriculture
  2. Identification of existing needs and interests for the future farm energy profile
  3. Registration of available FEFTS
  4. Exploration of financing tools (subsidies, loans, etc.) for agricultural de-fossilisation
  5. Production of community-based ideas for FEFTS integration in regional and EU agriculture
  6. Creation of the AgEnergy platform presenting available FEFTS
  7. Design of a Decision Support Toolkit to propose optimal integrated solutions for EU farms
  8. Creation of a FEFTS research roadmap
  9. Proposition of policy guidelines to de-fossilize EU agriculture