AgroEcology_Italy

Developer

Alberami SRL by Cleama

Address: Via Corte dei Mesagnesi, 30, Lecce, 73100, Italy

About
The project enjoys strong support from both the academic and farming communities and has established a network of local ‘hubs’ (generally comprised of technical agronomists) in most Italian regions, which will serve as promoters of the project and provide local support to farmers during the onboarding and starting phases. The collaboration with the department of agronomy of the local University of Bari, Italy, has strengthened its technological reach through the use of remote sensing technology, which is utilized for mapping and verification purposes, and later SOC measurement and other MRV activities. To date, AgroEcology_Italy has received interest from roughly 2’500 farmers from all regions of Italy, with an actually registered farming surface of roughly 3’000 hectares, mostly comprised of traditional olive groves.

Contact
Francesco Musardo, CEO
f.musardo@alberami.it
+39 351 821 4474
www.alberami.it

Background

Agriculture has a positive and important role to play in the fight against climate change: trees, crops, and hedgerows found on farmland sequester carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, while properly-managed soils provide carbon storage. Agriculture is, therefore, considered an important sector in decreasing carbon emissions.

Project

AgroEcology_Italy (the ‘Project’) is an agriculture-based carbon removal & sequestration project run by Alberami SRL, an Italian environmental-tech startup based in the Italian city of Lecce, in the southern region of Puglia.

This Project’s main objective is to decrease carbon emissions in the atmosphere, increase carbon sequestration in soil and biomass through better management of soils and crop residues and to create additional income for farmers by facilitating the creation and sale of carbon credits onto the voluntary carbon markets.

The scientific literature is rich in studies evidencing how agriculture has a positive and important role to play in the fight against climate change: trees, crops and hedgerows found on farmland sequester carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, while properly-managed soils provide carbon storage. Agriculture is, therefore, considered an important sector to decrease carbon emissions and this project aims to provide Italian farmers with the incentives, financial backing and guidance they need in order to overcome the barriers to widespread adoption of sustainable agricultural land management practices.

The Project supports farmers with the adoption of sustainable and regenerative farming practices and serves as a meeting point between agricultural, industrial and services companies, bringing sustainable farming’s excess CO2-sequestration capacity onto the international voluntary carbon market, thus creating improvements both from an economic and an environmental point of view. It does so by promoting its own farming protocol which comprises of a series of technical guidelines and specific project management activities intended to regenerate carbon in soils and to increase, where possible, the biomass of the agriculture ecosystems as a way to recover key ecological systems.

Although Italy is amongst Europe’s most successful countries in terms of organic farming adoption, a large percentage of agriculture in the Country is still done using methods that contribute to increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and loss of soil carbon stocks including widespread use of synthetic fertilizer formulations (e.g. anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, urea) and that it could, therefore, benefit from the introduction of more sustainable practices under the premises of a carbon farming framework.

Since practices prior to the implementation of the Project vary by farm, if not also by fields, baseline agricultural management practices are identified for each field based on the practices implemented during at least the three years prior to the implementation of regenerative practices under the project.

The proposed sustainable and regenerative farming practices that generate carbon credits are:

1. Avoidance or drastic reduction the use of synthetic fertilizers
2. Conservative land use management & promotion of biodiversity;
3. Management of pruning residues (green and dry) as carbon source for SOC
   • Pruning used as energy production
   • Pruning used as soil improver
4. Minimum Tillage / Conservative Plowing
5. Olive and other fruit’s stone pitting machines for biomass production
6. Optimal recycling of organic matter due to biomass produced.
7. Photovoltaic systems (as a way to reduce the farm’s overall footprint)
8. Radical reduction of pesticides: use of pesticides less than 1 kg / ha.
9. The creation of new orchards (plantation of new trees);
10. The Introduction of grazing animals in the context of effective soil health management
11. The use of year-round (where possible) cover crops to increase carbon in soil;
12. Use of organic soil and foliar amendments
13. Widespread promotion of organic management (certified or de-facto)

The Project, to date, has received interest from roughly 3,000 farmers from all regions of Italy with 200 farmers already registered on Alberami’s proprietary platform with a total farming surface of roughly 3’000 hectares, mostly comprised of traditional olive groves (the original crop chosen for this project). The project’s scope, however, is not limited to the olive growing sector and it plans on expanding its reach to fruits, almonds, walnuts, citrus orchards and vineyards and other woody perennials that offer ‘room for improvement’ in terms of their carbon-sequestration capacity and sustainability. 

The Project Proponent plans to roll out the Project to a minimum of 10,000 hectares of cultivated land within the first 24 months, then grow by a conservative 10,000 hectares per year to reach a minimum of 100,000 hectares by year 8-10.

 In terms of its annual average and total GHG emission mitigation, estimating a conservative improvement of 5 tCO₂e per hectare, Alberami estimates that the Project will contribute to the removal/sequestration of 50,000 t/CO2eq within the first 24 months, growing by a conservative 50,000 tCO₂e per year thereafter, reaching a conservative 500,000 tCO₂e per year by year 8-10.

Summary

Project operation start
2022
First vintage
2021

First project mitigation estimation
Year 1: 25,000 tCO2-e
Year 2-3: 50 – 75,000 tCO2-e
Year 4-10: Annual increase of 100,000 tCO2-e

Consultation

Are you an interested party, or do you have comments on the proposed activities? Please share your comments with us.