Programma: PRIN
Responsabile scientifico per il dipartimento: Serena Righi
Struttura principale: DIFA
Data inizio e data fine: dal 28/09/2023 al 28/09/2025
Biochar per una viticoltura sostenibile
Il progetto studia l’uso del biochar nei vigneti italiani per migliorare la salute del suolo, la produttività e la cattura del carbonio, contribuendo agli obiettivi UE su clima, agricoltura e sostenibilità.
Biochar for Sustainable Viticulture
The project investigates biochar use in Italian vineyards to enhance soil health, productivity, and carbon sequestration, supporting EU goals on climate, agriculture, and sustainability.
Abstract
The recent EU Soil Mission and the forthcoming Common Agricultural Policy support Europe’s path to sustainable soil managementtowards a green transition in urban and rural areas, will require specific actions aiming to increase soil health and C sequestrationwhile maintaining high productive standards. These actions complement the EU Strategies for Climate Change Mitigation,Biodiversity Strategy, Soil Strategy, Zero Pollution Strategy, Forestry Strategy, and Long-term Vision for Rural Areas. However,despite the intensity of the policy response, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report(https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6wg2/pdf/IPCC_AR6_WGII_SummaryForPolicymakers.pdf) indicates that climate change will impactagriculture more intensely than expected over the next two decades, undermining our food security and agricultural productivity andfarmers’ income.Biochar, a fraction of the biomass pyrolization process, incorporated into agricultural soils can increase the plant productivity,maintain or enhance the soil fertility, and allows carbon (C) sequestration with no adverse effects on soil biota. Biochar is admittedas a component material category in the EU Regulation on Fertilizers (2019/1009) as a ‘pyrolysis product made from a wide varietyof organic materials of plant origin’, and it is listed in Annex I, of the Regulation EC 889/08 on organic farming. Though in Italy theregistration of biochar in the in Annex 13 of Legislative Decree 75/2010 is still awaited, its use in agriculture can potentially increasein the next few years.Positive effects of biochar on crop production and soil fertility, C sequestration and GHG soil emission can contribute to theabove-mentioned EU objectives, but data have been mostly obtained from short term or pilot scale experiments, with weak scientificevidence to support new policy. This project will elucidate the effects of biochar amendment as long-term sustainable andregenerative soil practice in the key sector of viticulture, by taking advantage of four field trials with a duration spanning from 4 to >12 years, located in important wine production districts in Central and North Italy.The project will assess the effects of biochar on soil health, C sequestration in soil, vine productivity, and will assess thesustainability of biochar use in agriculture by a complete analysis of soil health indicators and vine productivity combined with Cmodelling, life cycle analysis and environmental economics approaches.The project will capitalize skills, know-how and research infrastructures of the University of Padua, the CNR Institute of Bioeconomyof Florence, University of Bologna, and the Free University of Bolzano in collaboration with wine Companies, to produce guidelines onthe use of biochar as a practical solution towards a more efficient, profitable and sustainable Italian viticulture, in line with the EUAdaptation Strategy Soil Mission and Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change.