First application in accordance with the Bureau Véritas' Label Bas Carbone Grandes Cultures method
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The Paris Agreements, signed five years ago, established a sustainable and ambitious international framework for cooperation on climate change to limit warming and achieve a global balance between greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
France's objective for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions within the framework of the Paris Agreements is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The agricultural sector currently contributes 17% of these emissions, in the form of direct or indirect emissions.
According to various concordant sources (ADEME, Climagri), 2/3 of the carbon footprint of food is linked to crop production.
The main ways of reducing these emissions have been studied and identified, in particular by INRA (various studies, including the 4 per 1000 study) and consist in
- reduce the use of mineral nitrogen fertilizers,
- store carbon in soil and biomass,
- modify the animals' ration,
- recovering effluents to produce energy and reduce fossil fuel consumption.
France, via the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, launched in 2019 the Low Carbon Label (LBC), which aims to certify projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The stakes in agriculture are high (source Ministry of Agriculture and Food):
Agriculture can commit to the Low Carbon Label in particular by increasing soil organic matter through different agronomic techniques (agroecology, conservation agriculture). In animal husbandry and plant cultivation, it is possible to use agroforestry, for example by planting hedges, to valorise animal excrements (permanent meadows, methanisation), to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers, for example by using leguminous plants. We can also act on the global footprint by, for example, limiting imports of animal feed. Generally speaking, all these initiatives have a global impact on the environment and society (biodiversity, water, air and food quality, health).
Companies or local authorities that wish to offset their CO2 emissions through "carbon credits" will be able to receive financial support for their low carbon label certified projects. Ultimately, the low-carbon label makes it possible to involve the whole of society in the fight against climate change through collaborative projects.
and could:
- contribute to significantly reduce/compensate for emissions (41% compensation of agricultural emissions if implementation of intermediate crops, intra-plot agroforestry and temporary grasslands, according to INRA)
- provide a source of income for farmers (carbon credits, CAP reform).
In agriculture, several Low Carbon Label methods have already been approved:
- A first agricultural method, "Carbon Agri", was developed by the Institut de l'élevage (IDELE). It targets emission reductions in cattle and field crop farming.
- A second agricultural method, "Hedgerows", has been developed by the Pays de la Loire Chamber of Agriculture. It targets the sustainable management of hedges.
- A third agricultural method, "Planting orchards", has been developed by the Compagnie des Amandes.
The Field Crops sectors (AGPM, AGPB, FOP, CGB) entrusted their national technical institutes (ARVALIS, Terres Inovia, ITB, ARTB) at the end of 2019 with the task of developing a Low Carbon Label method for Field Crops. It was submitted to the Ministry of Ecological Transition in December 2020 and validated on 26 August 2021.
MyEasyCarbon, the first application compliant with the Low Carbon Large Crop Label (LBC GC)
MyEasyFarm has been following the work of the AML GC consortium since 2019 and is a member of the User Committee.
The Field Crops method defines in particular that the scale of calculation is the Cultivation System (Pedo-climatic context x Cultivation strategy x Cultivation management) and that the data collection is done at the level of each plot of the farm.
It is therefore necessary that farms that are members of an AML CG project are able to justify changes in their cropping practices (e.g. introduction of intermediate crops, reduction of mineral amendments, liming of acid soils, reduction of fuel consumption for machinery) over the duration of the project (minimum 5 years), hence the interest of having a MRV (Monitoring Reporting Verification) tool.
The MyEasyFarm Precision Farming platform can aggregate agricultural data from multiple sources (Satellite, Weather, Soil, ADO, equipment) and therefore allows farmers to document their farming practices, thanks to the DRIVER mobile application for automatic traceability of interventions, but also to the feedback of application data recorded by agricultural equipment.
These data, combined with Sentinel satellite data (for monitoring crops and the amount of biomass generated), make it possible to accurately track crops and interventions on each plot of a field crop farm without input.
MyEasyFarm has therefore developed, from its Precision Agriculture platform, MyEasyCarbon, the first MRV (Monitoring Reporting Verification) tool that complies with the Low Carbon Label for Field Crops.
MyEasyCarbon is aimed at both Low Carbon Label project holders and farmers.
MyEasyCarbon allows :
- to establish the Carbon Reference Scenario for the farm and to simulate the potential gains from a change in cropping practices,
- to document the interventions in each plot over the course of the Label Bas Carbone project, without inputting data, thanks to Sentinel Satellite data and automatic feedback from agricultural equipment or drivers' mobiles,
- to calculate the effective annual balance of Carbon Credits generated on the operation
- to share information between the farmer and the LBC project leader thanks to the platform's collaborative functions.
AGRO-TRANSFERT partnership
MyEasyFarm has worked in collaboration with several technical institutes, specialized in measuring soil carbon storage or greenhouse gas emissions to interface their tools into MyEasyCarbon.
In particular, MyEasyFarm has just concluded a first partnership agreement with AGRO-TRANSFERT, the technical institute founded by INRAE and the Chambers of Agriculture, to interface SIMEOS-AMG with MyEasyCarbon.
SIMEOS-AMG is the tool developed by AGRO-TRANSFERT for the simulation of the evolution of the organic state of soils, based on the AMG method (validated in the LBC GC method), allowing to evaluate the evolution of Carbon storage in the soil, according to the farmers' cultivation practices.
SIMEOS-AMG is interfaced with MyEasyCarbon and is used to calculate the baseline scenario and to simulate potential gains in soil carbon storage due to changes in farmers' cropping practices.
MyEasyCarbon is open and complementary to the Parcel Management tools, the MyEasyFarm platform being already interfaced with the SMAG Farmer and GEOFOLIA tools.
Thought is also being given to interfacing MyEasyCarbon with other tools that can cover other workshops on a farm (livestock, milk, agroforestry, methanisation).
The potential gain of a 100-hectare arable farm is estimated at €4,000 per year (1 tonne CO2 equivalent / hectare / year for a price per tonne CO2 of €40).
MyEasyCarbon is available for an annual subscription fee starting at €250 for a farm of this size, with the possibility of adding the SAT (Sentinel Satellite Data), DRIVER (Automatic Tracking by Machine Operators) and DOCUMENT (Tracking by Farm Equipment) options.
MyEasyCarbon is also compliant with ADEME's Bon Diagnostic Carbone, which anticipates LBC GC projects.
For more information on MyEasyCarbon: https: //www.myeasycarbon.com
