Climate Farm Demo (CFD): A European - wide network of pilot farmers implementing and demonstrating climate smart solutions for a carbon neutral Europe

Acronym: Climate Farm Demo (CFD)

Competition title: Horizon Europe

Funding: Horizon Europe

AFZ role: partner

Total value: €21,487,132.66

Funded amount: €21,487,132.66

Contract No: 101060212

Start date: 2022/10/01

End date: 2029/09/30

Web: https://climatefarmdemo.eu/

Climate Farm Demo is a unique pan-European network of Pilot Demo Farmers (PDFs) covering 28 countries and all pedo-climatic areas. Its overall aim is to accelerate the adoption of Climate Smart Farming (CSF) practices and solutions by farmers and all actors of the Climate Smart Agriculture Knowledge & Innovation Systems (AKIS) with a view to adapting agricultural production systems to climate change and to achieving a carbon neutral agricultural sector by 2050, thereby meeting the targets of the EU Climate strategy.

To reach this objective, the project adopts a MultiActor approach by connecting 1500 Pilot Demo Farmers and their Climate Farm Advisors (CFAs) at European and national levels to increase knowledge exchange & cross-fertilisation in their respective AKIS. The CFA’s will support the PDFs in implementing Adaptation and Mitigation Measures suggested by contextualised guidelines and will assess & monitor their environmental performance thanks to harmonised methodologies & tools.

Technical and social innovations covering a broad range of thematic areas will be demonstrated to the wider farming community across six annual demo campaigns by organizing 4500 demo events and supporting interactive and peer-to-peer learning. New and innovative CSF solutions will be co-created in 10 Living Labs spread across Europe, and lessons learned from multi-actor innovation will be shared and scaled.

A set of public and private rewarding mechanisms will be identified, proposed, and demonstrated to the AKIS actors, thus incentivising the uptake of CSF solutions while ensuring sustainable business models. Strategic and operational cooperation will be organised with projects, flagship initiatives, and policy-makers at European and national levels in order to share knowledge, organise coordinated actions, and produce policy briefs. Finally, to accelerate the wide spreading and uptake of results, an ambitious dissemination, exploitation, and communication strategy will be deployed at the EU and national levels.

Assoc. Prof. Darija Bilandžija, PhD
University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture