Regenerative agriculture as a tool for combating climate change in semi-arid Mediterranean regions

The term 'carbon farming' is currently used as a synonym for 'regenerative agriculture', which is explicitly based on improving soil fertility and farm productivity (EU, 2021).

The final aim of the complementary agri-food plan AGROALNEXT is to favour the double transformation, digital and sustainable of the agri-food sector, in order to increase its competitiveness and achieve the climate and environmental objectives set out in the Green Pact, while guaranteeing the supply of healthy, safe, sustainable and accessible food to the population, as pursued by the EU Farm to Table Strategy. Specifically, line 4 'Circular Economy' is developed with the aim of reducing losses, emissions and waste generated by the agricultural sector, and of those that cannot be avoided, generating opportunities for exploitation and win-win processes in their management, which are technologically transformed into value for the sector, increasing the circularity of the sector.

The RECEC research project, which started on the 1st of September 2024, aims to enhance the resilience of agricultural production to the impacts of climate change through the promotion of efficient circularity. This project is founded on the POST LIFE plan of the LIFE AMDRYC4 project, which was led by the University of Murcia and concluded in 2022.

The objective of the RECEC project is to ensure, through a series of agricultural practices, that CO₂ is absorbed from the atmosphere and stored in plant material and soil organic matter. In order to achieve these objectives, the present research project aims to evaluate and determine the suitability of new organic products, for which no data are available, such as plant biomass removed from the Mar Menor coast (Murcia, Spain), to improve soil structure, increase its fertility and evaluate its capacity as a CO₂ sink for these marine by-products. Recent data from the Regional Ministry of Environment of the CARM reveals that between 2017 and 2022, a total of 32,920 tonnes of marine biomass were removed. Other vegetable waste (broccoli, cabbage, almond, olive, grapefruit and fig tree pruning waste) from agricultural activity in the Region of Murcia that can be used as by-products for soil regeneration have also been incorporated.

The results obtained from this research will be useful to collaborate in the governance of the implementation of the European 'Carbon Farming' Strategy. These solutions would provide a common framework for the entire national territory, and the rest of the European regulations, thereby demonstrating the potential of Mediterranean rainfed agriculture to play a significant role as a tool for climate change mitigation, as a carbon sink and as a supplier of ecosystem services. The benefits obtained from this project translate into agricultural tools for climate change mitigation and adaptation through, for example, the fight against desertification, biodiversity conservation and socio-economic benefits, which would curb rural depopulation, in line with meeting the demographic challenge.

This study formed part of the AGROALNEXT programme and was supported by MCIN with funding from European Union Next Generation EU (PRTR-C17.I1) and by Fundación Séneca with funding from Comunidad Autónoma Región de Murcia (CARM).