Soil-friendly practices in horticulture, including alternative growing media

Activities under this topic will help to progress towards the objectives of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, in particular its specific objectives 2 “Conserve and increase soil organic carbon stocks”, 4 “Reduce soil pollution and enhance restoration” and 6 “Improve soil structure to enhance habitat quality for soil biota and crops”. Activities should also contribute to EU climate action and to other policies in the framework of the European Green Deal, such as the Organic Action Plan^[1], the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030^[2] and the proposed Nature Restoration Law^[3].

Project results should contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Reduced carbon and overall environmental footprint of the horticultural sector^[4] and more sustainable production systems, reducing negative impacts on soil health throughout the value chain.
• Novel products (e.g. alternative potting and soil-improving materials), production processes and management options for soil management are developed and tested and show improved environmental, social, health and safety performance, as demonstrated through improved testing and validation methods throughout the entire life cycle.
• Sustainable alternatives to peat are more widely available and used in conventional and organic horticulture.
• Policy measures and other incentives have been explored and elaborated to further the uptake of sustainable alternatives to peat.

Practices in horticulture can affect soil health and related ecosystem services at different points in the value chain, for example at production sites as well as further upstream. Within horticultural production systems, soils are often subjected to particularly intensive use, which can cause among others soil compaction, soil pollution (e.g. excess nutrients, pesticides or microplastics), and salinization as a consequence of intensive irrigation. Peat is commonly used in nurseries, greenhouses and amateur horticulture as a growing medium and for soil improvement, as it has an excellent water retention capacity, is highly fertile due to the reduced leaching of nutrients and can improve the soil buffering capacity. The extraction of natural peat, however, is highly contentious as the disturbance of peatlands leads to habitat loss, soil degradation, CO₂ emissions and increased flood risks. Therefore, sustainable alternatives to natural peat are required. While various peat-free or peat-reduced growing media have become more widely available in recent years, their performance with regard to environmental and other relevant criteria remains difficult to assess.

Proposed activities should:

• Identify, develop and promote horticultural practices and production systems that conserve or improve soil health. This should include alternative materials to be used as sustainable substitutes for peat as substrate or soil improver in organic and conventional horticulture, with the aim of attenuating soil stress and strengthening ecosystem services.
• Demonstrate the feasibility and economic viability of the newly developed alternatives to the use of peat in horticulture. This should be done in accordance with relevant EU regulatory frameworks related to their placing on the market.
• Generate data to support improved environmental, social, health and safety performance of alternative growing media in a life-cycle perspective and taking into account potential trade-offs and indirect consequences, including outside of the EU, where relevant.
• Develop and/or improve sustainable management practices in horticulture (including digital technologies and infrastructures) to reduce the use of inputs such as plant protection products, fertilizers and water in horticultural crops. Measures should also contribute to improving soil structure and mitigating soil compaction. Where applicable, practices should cover both protected (greenhouses and tunnels) and open field systems.
• Identify and analyse barriers (economic, social or regulatory) that may hinder the uptake of the proposed soil-friendly practices by professional producers as well as by private consumers in amateur horticulture, and where relevant suggest suitable measures to overcome the identified obstacles.
• Develop and test material for awareness raising, dissemination and training to promote the uptake of soil-friendly horticultural practices. This material should be used by agricultural advisory services, in vocational training and other relevant contexts.

In this topic the multi-actor approach has to be implemented by involving a wide range of stakeholders (e.g. industry including SMEs, public authorities, research centres, public and private investors, civil society) to co-create sustainable solutions and increase opportunities for them to be scaled up. The topic should involve the effective contribution of SSH disciplines.

The proposals selected under this topic should dedicate the necessary resources to work closely together to maximise synergies. Proposals should demonstrate a route towards open access, longevity, sustainability and interoperability of knowledge and outputs through close collaboration with the EU Soil Observatory and other projects funded under the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’. Furthermore, proposals should take into account and build on outputs from other relevant projects such as e.g. EXCALIBUR^[5].

Potentially, the projects funded under this topic could also cooperate with living labs and lighthouses that will be created in this call or future calls of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 5-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/farming/organic-farming/organic-action-plan_en

[2] https://environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/biodiversity-strategy-2030_en

[3] https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/nature-and-biodiversity/nature-restoration-law_en

[4] For the purposes of this topic, horticulture is understood broadly to include the production, by professionals or amateurs, of various types of vegetables, fruits, grapes, nuts, medicinal and ornamental plants (including trees and woody plants) and mushrooms as well as related practices (e.g. hydroponics and aquaponics), while excluding large-scale arable crop production or animal husbandry.

[5] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/817946