Additives for Reducing Enteric Methane Emissions
Grassland Management
Energy Management
Water Management
Agroforestry and Relation to Landscape
Rewarding Mechanisms
Forage Production
Crops Management
Biogas Production
Soil Health and Biodiversity
Manure Storage and Spreading
A key challenge in climate-smart farming advisory work is that, although advisors are familiar with the topic, their understanding of what “climate-smart farming” means is not always aligned. ClimateSmartAdvisors explored this as an opportunity to better understand how advisors across Europe interpret the concept in practice. The findings are based on a synthesis of discussions from 10 groups: Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany (Bavaria), Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the UK.
The synthesis showed that advisors were generally very aware of climate-smart farming, which is expected given their professional background, but important differences appeared in how they defined and prioritised the concept. In Croatia, advisors struggled to provide a precise definition, while all other groups proposed at least one, and often several, definitions. Four main interpretations emerged: reducing GHG emissions (Ireland, Germany); adapting to climate change (Spain); combining mitigation and adaptation (Italy, Denmark, France); and a broader sustainability perspective including environmental impact, biodiversity, soil quality, economic viability, and social relevance (Spain, Estonia, France). CSA uses a broad definition linking sustainable productivity, resilience, adaptation, and mitigation. Group discussions showed that this definition is comprehensive but not always straightforward. The UK group proposed a shorter, practice-oriented version focused on farm viability, climate measures in decision-making, food production efficiency, and resilience.
The findings show that advisors may share a common interest in climate-smart farming while emphasising different dimensions of it. Training and advisory materials should avoid assuming one fixed interpretation, but should support a shared understanding while allowing adaptation to national and regional contexts. Clearer formulations can help advisors communicate the concept more effectively to farmers and other stakeholders.
