The 5th Regenerative Viticulture Symposium has brought together experts in soil management and carbon capture in Vinseum in Vilafranca del Penedès to show how this sector can help stop the climate crisis. Promoted by the Association of Regenerative Viticulture and the Innovi and held on Thursday, June 12, the event has brought authorized voices to explain strategies so that the cultivation of the vineyard has a positive impact on the overall carbon balance.

Presented by Eloi Montcada, Cluster Manager of Innovi, the institutional welcome has been carried out by the Mayor of Vilafranca del Penedès, Francisco Romero, and the General Director of the INCAVI, Joan Gené, who emphasized the `` vision '' of launching the symposium at the time, showing `` the vitality and the commitment of the sector ''. The President of Innovi and founding partner of the Regenerative Viticulture Association, Mireia Torres, said that the entity already has 125 members in almost a dozen countries. A collaborative network that fosters sustainable practices following "one of the best agricultural models and the most meaningful in a context of climate change".

To be negative in carbon, a unique capacity

The Doctor of Agronomy Luis López Bellido has begun the presentations, highlighting the enormous potential of agriculture to store carbon, a capacity made by a unique economic sector. There are 2 to 3 times more than in the atmosphere and vegetation on the ground, but the practices of the 20th century have damaged this natural system and its management must be improved to recover capturing capacity. The aim is for each cultivated hectare to remove between 0.8 and 4.5 tons a year of equivalent CO2, and for this it is necessary to know the complex mechanisms that govern organic carbon. Thus, putting science at the service of agricultural practices, the sector can store more carbon than it emits.

Carbon credits, a complex subject but with potential

The head of the Transversal Policy Service and Foreign Action of the Department of Agriculture and former director of the Climate Change Office, Salvador Samitier, has addressed a very important aspect of the action against climate change: carbon credits, a `` trade system '' that can be useful to the crisis but is highly complex.

A carbon credit is defined as 1 ton of equivalent CO2. However, not all are the same, neither for how they have been generated - accreditation, absorption ... - or how they have been certified - with more than 90 methodologies accepted but not harmonized - or by geographical origin - the physicochemical mechanisms of carbon capture are not the same everywhere. In addition, there are two major markets disconnected, at least for the moment: that of the credits obtained by compliance with regulations and those obtained by volunteer practices.

Standardization, the key to the carbon credits of the future

As both Samitier and the biologist Carlos Alberto Torres and the agronomist Diana Jiménez, of the Beta Center of the University of Vic, unified mechanisms are needed to avoid double accounting of credits, equivalent certifications and guarantee both the profitability of the credits and their durability over time. In addition, it must also be ensured that other aspects of the environment are not generated or violated labor and human rights.

With increasingly active financial actors and increasing demand for credits of natural origin - branches and agriculture - this is especially important. Regenerative agriculture has advantages in the chain of supplies and soil: it directly reduces the carbon footprint, strengthens the relationship with suppliers, improves the image and loyalty consumers, complies with the regulations, gives competitive advantage and can generate credits and therefore extra revenue. To take advantage of this opportunity, Beta investigate how to increase soil fertility, quantify storage carbon, promote standardization and create a clear and reliable framework for the carbon credits market for the future.

Restoring soils will give us healthier and more resistant crops

The last part of the symposium has focused on the soil and the mechanisms to regenerate it. The techniques and the objectives are shared: to reduce the plow, to avoid pesticides, to integrate the livestock into the crops and to increase the presence of carbon in the soil, to restore the biological cycle of nutrients and to improve the percolation of the water. In addition to the idea, which has flown over all the presentations, the One Health: the health of microorganisms is the basis of a chain that benefits plants, animals and humans.

Microbiologist Isabella Tomasi has opened the blog by announcing a new technique that involves "very interesting qualitative jumps" in the health of roots and plants based on the redox pH/potential balance of the soil.

Breathing oxid, also in the case of plants. But oxidation can be reduced - and with it, the effects of physiological stress - if the plant receives more solar energy and if the soil around it maintains a proper balance between pH and redox potential. A slightly alkaline neutral pH (between 7.2 and 7.5) and a reduced redox potential (between 430 and 450 mV in the soil) are the ideal conditions for promoting a resilient and active plant physiology. This combination promotes beneficial microbiological activity, stimulates the synthesis of organic compounds and strengthens the plant's defenses.

Soils with these characteristics also contain more trace elements, enzymes, vitamins and natural antioxidants, which not only contribute to the vitality of the vineyard, but also reduce carbon emissions from plants.

Tomasi is committed to the use of lactoffer biolets or rich compounds in organic matter, as tools for correcting imbalances and stimulating the activity of the microbiota.

Studies in progress

Researcher Amaia Nogales de l'Irta has talked about the role of mycorriot fungi, which establish symbiosis with roots and provide them with nutrients and water in exchange for carbon compounds. They are fundamental in the functioning of a living system: they increase the resistance of plants to pathogens and droughts, reduce mortality after planting and replanting, they give structure and stability to the soil ... The myceliums of these fungi allow the development of microorganisms that help the plant: bacteria promoting plant growth, decomposers of organic matter, nitrogen fixers, nitrogen fixers. In addition, they stop the proliferation of pathogenic fungi and allow the roots to grow more and better.

Intensive agriculture practices, however, destroy these fungi and alter the biological cycles of the soil. That is why Nogales has presented the first results of an ongoing study of fungal inoculation and combination with vegetable roofs to improve mycorrhizoesphere, including the increase in the presence of beneficial fungi. A work that is complemented by Regenera.cat, a CREAF project that was explained by Xavier Domene. In this case, it is focused on improving the biodiversity of soils in a more general way, both on the surface and inside: pest predators, pollinators ... This must also be applied to adjacent habitats, benefiting crops as part of a large ecosystem.

A manual of best practices

Doctors Marc Viñas and Felicidad de Herralde, from IRTA, closed the Symposium talking about Vitiregenere, a project in which Familia Torres has participated and evaluates and values the application of regenerative viticulture with physicochemical parameters and microbial diversity of the soil. The initial conclusions show positive tendencies in various indicators, including carbon abduction capacity. However, it will be necessary to see the reach and also how the specific conditions of each soil condition the effectiveness of each technique.

As a first step, they have presented a manual of best practices that is already available and contains directions for those who want to guide their agricultural activity to this more sustainable model and that promotes the regeneration of soils and the capture of carbon.