Empowering farmers: a participatory approach to soil organic carbon assessment

Soils are key to sustain food production. An important component of soils is organic matter, which contributes to soil fertility and crop growth, and consists of about 58% carbon. This soil organic carbon also helps to fight climate change, as the more carbon is in the soil, the less in the atmosphere contributing to greenhouse effect and global warming. The primary objective of this project is to empower farmers to estimate the level of soil organic carbon content in their fields, through the assessment of soil colour. This easy and accessible method will be validated against laboratory assessment, which is usually more costly and time consuming. The project aims to develop a new, accessible method and will contribute to raising awareness on soil health and carbon sequestration that can be used to adapt farm management practices towards net zero targets.

Project lead: Lucie Büchi (Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich), Marcos Paradelo Perez  (Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich)

Project collaborators: Peter Hoebe (Earthwatch Europe), Sophie Cowling (Earthwatch Europe) Alastair Leake (The Allerton Project), Aman Kanwar (City of London School for Girls), Tuan Nguyen (Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich), Gianluca Tozzi  (Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich)