The awareness of carbon farming in the agricultural sector, possible and used techniques and business approaches in the North Sea region. Short report of two surveys (2019 and 2021) – with data attachment
The project partners carried out two surveys at the beginning and end of the project. In 2019 we were interested to evaluate previous thoughts and experiences with measures to preserve and increase carbon storage in soils among farmers. We were also interested to know whether farmers in the North Sea region had heard of this topic and if they were aware of the role of soils in climate change, as well as in their knowledge about the marketing of the associated environmental services. Also, we planned to identify possible chain partners who were interested in supporting the development in soil management to increase SOC. We aimed at drawing attention to further emerging activities on Carbon Farming (political development is summarized under e.g. https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/forests-and-agriculture/sustainable-carbon-cycles/carbon-farming_de), and also at recruiting people for the exchange of new ideas and cooperation. Ideas and practical approaches to develop business models for Carbon Farming that might be suitable to contribute to the introduction of SOC friendly farm management should be developed in the project. In the second questionnaire campaign in 2021, we tried to get a rough impression how the awareness and engagement of farmers and other actors developed in the running time of the project over two and a half years and if awareness, knowledge and engagement on the issue Carbon Farming changed.