Conservation agriculture and bioenergy buffer strips for soil and water quality improvement (CABIOS)
The farms involved in the project are four associated farms each other for the production of biogas. The main objectives are: 1) to improve crop N and water use efficiency and limit the release of nitrates and pesticides in surface and subsurface water bodies 2) to increase physical, chemical and biological soil quality. The project aims to implement an innovative management system of agroecosystem based on the integration of conservation agriculture (no tillage, cover crops and crop rotation) in combination with punctual and localized distribution of liquid fraction of digestate, subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system and along the field borders with the realization of bioenergy buffer strips.
- Action 1 Adoption of conservation agriculture techniques, injection of liquid fraction of digestate and SDI system
- Action 2 Implementation of bioenergy buffer strips with perennial crop (Miscanthus x giganteous L.)
- Action 3 Installation of the experimental device for monitoring water and soil quality
- Action 4 Monitoring of buffer strips efficiency to contain the pollution of water bodies by nitrate and pesticides
- Action 5 Monitoring of the agro-environmental performance of conservation agriculture
- Action 6 Construction of a set of indicators for the evaluation of agri-environmental performance of the innovative agroecosystem management
In summary, the project aims to compare a conventional farming system with high environmental impact based on the use of high inputs with an agricultural system based on input reduction and aimed at increasing the agroecosystem's resilience. The combined use of bioenrgy buffers and conservative agriculture may results in an improvement not only in water quality but also in productive benefits through increased soil quality. The efficient use of nitrogen inputs via digestate from biogas plants has in fact a dual purpose. From a production point of view, an internal resource such as the liquid fraction of the digestate is combined with the adoption of conservative farming techniques in order to reduce the use of synthetic and herbicide fertilizers first and to improve soil quality and the crop nitrogen use efficiency and consequently favor the reduction of contamination of water bodies.
Thanks to the integration into the agroecosystem of bioenergy buffers, conservative soil management, localized and punctual application of nitrogen fertilization and subsurface drip irrigation, we expect: 1) a substantial reduction of nitrates and pesticides leaching; 2) the reduction in the use of herbicides and the increase of water and nitrogen crop use efficiency; 3) an increase of soil quality: physical (water infiltration capacity and increased water availability), biological (greater activity and biomass of soil microflora) and chemical (increase in organic matter and availability of nutrients).
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