Soil erosion: who cares? An EU farmer perspective (in 3D).

Soil erosion, hydrogeologic risk, and land degradation are serious issues that receive due attention in policy and scientific research. As soil scientists with years of experience in both research and (agricultural) projects, we observed erosion issues in both simulations and field measurements - yet at the same time we observed another interesting trend. The researcher sometimes seems more concerned with long-term soil loss processes than the person owning and working that very soil: the farmer.

This leads to the interesting question: is erosion an actual concern for the average farmer?

In our most recent scientific work within the https://phito.eu/ project, we conducted an elaborate questionnaire among 650+ smallholder farmers throughout Europe. Two questions in particular returned surprising insights in this farmer perspective on erosion:

• To the question what kind of map data would be useful for their farming, soil erosion was ranked as the least useful information out of 11 variables. In fact, more than ⅓ of farmers rate soil erosion risk maps as not useful at all. This was notably low compared to water- and meteorology-related variables (e.g. temperature and precipitation maps were desired by >88% of farmers).
• To another question about the importance of climate-induced risks, land degradation was ranked as the lowest concern out of 8 risks, again in contrast to concerns about water- and meteorology-related events (heatwaves and drought). Tellingly, even ecological degradation was ranked higher (biodiversity being a concern among > ½ of farmers) than land degradation (soil erosion, landslides and hydrological risk not being a concern for ~ ½ of farmers).
  
  NB: the 650+ respondents are diverse Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Albanian, Hungarian and EU-overseas smallholder farmers, the majority of which are working in hilly environments.

These results offer the soil science community a rich basket of food for thought, straight from the farmer. In this session, alongside a unique (3D) poster illustrating the different views on erosion, we welcome an open discussion to exchange ideas about possible explanations, its implications for our discipline, and possible solutions that are supported by farmers.