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Agriculture is a big source of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. The EU is committed to methods that increase efficiency and resilience to climate change and reduce emissions. European Mixed Farming and Agroforestry Systems (MiFAS) optimise productivity and resource use. The EU-funded MIXED project will take a participatory and transdisciplinary approach to advance and apply efficient and resilient MiFAS. Specifically, this approach will engage organic and conventional networks of farmers, researchers and other stakeholders to ensure the highest levels of implementation of MiFAS in terms of climate change and ecosystems services. It will also address the potential effects on the environment and crop and livestock production as well as on animal welfare.

The EU boasts one of the most strictest systems in the world for authorising and controlling the use of pesticides. The aim is to minimise the impact of pesticides on human health and the environment. The EU-funded ARISTO project is bringing together academia and industry to research the environmental off-target effects of pesticides. It will improve knowledge on the development of advanced tools and procedures for the comprehensive assessment of toxicity of pesticides on soil organisms. The project will offer doctorate fellows a training programme aimed at developing advanced experimental lab and field tests to assess the toxicity of pesticides on natural soil. It will also develop a toxicity assessment to identify the response of soil microbial networks to pesticides.

Europe is one of the most intensively 'used' continents on the globe. As much as 80 % of its land is used for settlement and production systems, particularly in agriculture and forestry. The EU-funded AGROMIX project aims to conduct participatory research to drive the transition towards resilient and efficient land use in Europe. It will focus on practical agroecological solutions for farm and land management and related value chains. Furthermore, it will make use of a network of 83 sites that encompass mixed farming, agroforestry or value chain stakeholder systems, which are used to measure, design, model, test and improve these solutions.

Rich in biodiversity, the soil microbiome plays an important role in agricultural soil systems. The EU-funded EXCALIBUR project will enhance knowledge on soil biodiversity dynamics and its synergistic effects with prebiotic and probiotic approaches in horticulture. New multifunctional soil microbial inoculants (bio-inocula) and bio-effectors will be tested on three model crops of economic importance (tomato, apple, strawberry) under different experimental and open-field conditions across Europe, and the feed-feedback effect of/on native biodiversity will be monitored. To go beyond the multitude of studies on the links between soil biodiversity and plant health, EXCALIBUR will develop a comprehensive strategy of soil management improving the effectiveness of biocontrol and bio-fertilisation practices in agriculture.

Soil science is essential for precision agriculture and for sustainable soil management. The EU-funded SOILdarity project will develop strategies to integrate soil ecology with cutting-edge soil and crop sensors, modelling and system-control-technologies for sustainable soil management. The project will focus on Portugal, where soil faces considerable challenges due to management and climate change, erosion and overexploitation. It will facilitate the cooperation between the leading partner FCiências.ID (including Ciências, the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Science), and two leading research institutions: MIGAL- Galilee Research Institute (Israel) and UGENT University (Belgium). The leading partner aims at boosting the research and innovation capacity of Ciências, improving its know-how in precision agriculture and sustainable soil management through knowledge-transfer established with internationally leading research-intensive partners.