Sweden
February 11, 2021
Lantmännen and Svensk Kolinlagring are setting up test activities on Lantmännen’s Farm of the Future in Bjertorp to further develop carbon sequestration within Swedish agriculture. Carbon sequestration will be crucial in order to reach climate neutrality before 2050.
Lantmännen partners up with Svensk Kolinlagring in a pilot project to test and evaluate methods that aim to increase carbon sequestration, with the objective to verify and certify these effects. Through continuous refinement of methods and input data, the project aims to calculate and confirm the actual climate benefits of carbon sequestration, which in turn will create new business opportunities within agriculture.
“We look forward to collaborating with Svensk Kolinlagring and taking part of their knowledge and experience through previous trials. This is a crucial area for the future and we at Lantmännen want to contribute to the development by sharing our expertise within the grain value chain. Together we aim to scale up carbon capturing and to find business models suitable for all parties – from the farmers who offer the ecosystem services to the engaged consumers who want to contribute to a sustainable development,” says Claes Johansson, Head of Sustainable Development at Lantmännen.
On the Farm of the Future in Bjertorp outside Kvänum, testing of several sustainability measures are already underway such as precision farming, skylark plots and flowering zones. Now efforts to bind more carbon in the soil are to be intensified.
“We see how the interest for carbon sequestration increases as more companies measure their emissions. They demand a service coupled with concrete measures that they can use now, here in Sweden. With regards to that development it is with great joy that Lantmännen are joining us in a pilot project that will accelerate the transformation of the agriculture industry in ways required and requested by UN climate panels on climate and biological diversity (IPCC, IPBES) on a global level,” says Lova Brodin, Project Manager at Svensk Kolinlagring.
Along with digitalization, fossil free input materials and plant breeding, developments within carbon sequestration are key to reach Farming of the Future*, with significantly increased yields and reduced climate impact. The collaboration will therefore be an important step when it comes to showing what farming of the future looks like in practice and to further drive the development towards a more profitable and climate neutral farming by 2050.
Source: Lantmännen report: Farming of the Future – the road to climate neutral farming 2050, 2019. https://www.lantmannen.com/siteassets/documents/02-vart-ansvar-jord-till-bord/forskning--innovation/10203569_lm_framtidens_jordbruk_eng_webb_ny.pdf
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